Molecular clockworks knit together diverse biological networks and compelling evidence from model systems infers their importance in metabolism, immunological and cardiovascular function. Despite this and the diurnal variation in many aspects of human physiology and the phenotypic expression of disease, our understanding of the role and importance of clock function and dysfunction in humans is modest. There are tantalizing hints of connection across the translational divide and some correlative evidence of gene variation and humandisease but most of what we know derives from forced desynchrony protocols in controlled environments. We now have the ability to monitor quantitatively ex vivo or in vivo the genome, metabolome, proteome and microbiome of humans in the wild. Combining this capability, with the power of mobile telephony and the evolution of remote sensing, affords a new opportunity for deep phenotyping, including the characterization of diurnal behaviour and the assessment of the impact of the clock on approved drug function.

Cardioviruses (e.g., Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus [TMEV]) are members of the Picornaviridae family that cause myocarditis and encephalitis in rodents. Recently, several studies have identified human cardioviruses, including Saffold virus (SAFV) and a related virus named human TMEV-like cardiovirus (HTCV). At least eight cardiovirus genotypes are now recognized, with SAFV and most strains of HTCV belonging to genotypes 1 and 2, respectively; genotype 2 strains are the most common in the population. Although a genotype 3 cardiovirus has recently been cultured (SAFV-3), the genotype 1 and 2 cardioviruses have been difficult to propagate in vitro, hindering efforts to understand their seroprevalence and pathogenicity. Here we present the isolation and characterization of a genotype 2 human cardiovirus (HTCV-UC6). Notably, successful cultivation of HTCV-UC6 from stool required the addition of cytokine-blocking antibodies to interrupt downstream antiviral pathways. Unlike SAFV-3, HTCV-UC6 exhibited slow replication kinetics and demonstrated only a moderate cytopathic effect. Serologic assays revealed that 91% of U.S. adults carry antibodies to the genotype 2 cardioviruses, of which 80% generate neutralizing antibodies, in agreement with previous data showing that cardiovirus infection is widespread in humans. We also demonstrate an acute cardiovirus seroconversion event in a child with diarrhea and vomiting, thus reporting for the first time evidence linking cardiovirus infection to diarrheal disease in humans.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Human caliciviruses (HuCV are emerging enteric pathogens that are a common cause of diarrhea in humans worldwide. Due to the paucity of information on the molecular characterization of HuCV circulating in Mexico, the aim of this work was to investigate the diversity and molecular epidemiology of the HuCV infection associated with acute diarrheal disease in Mexican children aged up to 5 years. Results Of the 131/414 (32% HuCV positive-specimens analyzed, 128 were identified as Norovirus (NoV and three as Sapovirus (SaV. Of the NoV positive specimens, 118/128 (92% were NoV GII and 10/128(8% were untypeable by RT-PCR in both polymerase and capsid genes, whereas one SaV isolate was further confirmed by sequencing as GI.2. Phylogenetic analysis based on polymerase partial gene sequences from 89/131 (68% HuCV isolates showed that 86/89 (97% belong to NoV GII.4 with three main variant clusters of this genotype, 2/89 (2% to NoV GII.2, and 1/89 (1% to SaV GI.2. Furthermore, partial sequencing of the capsid gene VP1 of 63/131 (48% strains indicated that 61/63 (97% correlated with NoV GII.4, whereas only 2/63 (3% clustered to NoV GII.2. HuCV infections were detected throughout the year, and the highest number of cases positive for NoV was found in children between 7 and 18 months of age (60%. Conclusions This study highlights the usefulness of analyzing both polymerase and capsid genes for molecular characterization of HuCV and demonstrates the relatedness and predominance of NoV GII.4 with acute diarrheal disease in young Mexican children, thus contributing to better understanding of the molecular epidemiology of this disease.

and functions are expressed in HDFs’ culture environment. Studies of molecular disease mechanisms often point to the involvement of mitochondria. Mitochondria are involved in the regulation of cell cycle and programmed cell death as well as cellular stress responses because they are the main producers......Cell phenotyping of human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) from patients with inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) provide invaluable information for diagnosis, disease aetiology, predicting prognosis, and monitoring of treatments. HDFs possess the genetic composition of patients and many pathways...... of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Advances in technology help the study of complex situations with large amount of data, like cellular phenotyping in cell culture. Image cytometry is an emerging technique that combines morphological information and fluorescent intensity data from single cells. We defined...

One to two percent of all children are born with a developmental disorder requiring pediatric hospital admissions. For many such syndromes, the molecular pathogenesis remains poorly characterized. Parallel developmental disorders in other species could provide complementary models for human rare diseases by uncovering new candidate genes, improving the understanding of the molecular mechanisms and opening possibilities for therapeutic trials. We performed various experiments, e.g. combined genome-wide association and next generation sequencing, to investigate the clinico-pathological features and genetic causes of three developmental syndromes in dogs, including craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO), a previously undescribed skeletal syndrome, and dental hypomineralization, for which we identified pathogenic variants in the canine SLC37A2 (truncating splicing enhancer variant), SCARF2 (truncating 2-bp deletion) and FAM20C (missense variant) genes, respectively. CMO is a clinical equivalent to an infantile cortical hyperostosis (Caffey disease), for which SLC37A2 is a new candidate gene. SLC37A2 is a poorly characterized member of a glucose-phosphate transporter family without previous disease associations. It is expressed in many tissues, including cells of the macrophage lineage, e.g. osteoclasts, and suggests a disease mechanism, in which an impaired glucose homeostasis in osteoclasts compromises their function in the developing bone, leading to hyperostosis. Mutations in SCARF2 and FAM20C have been associated with the human van den Ende-Gupta and Raine syndromes that include numerous features similar to the affected dogs. Given the growing interest in the molecular characterization and treatment of human rare diseases, our study presents three novel physiologically relevant models for further research and therapy approaches, while providing the molecular identity for the canine conditions.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global health problem; the growing gap between the number of patients awaiting transplant and organs actually transplanted highlights the need for new treatments to restore renal function. Regenerative medicine is a promising approach from which treatments for organ-level disorders (e.g., neurogenic bladder) have emerged and translated to clinics. Regenerative templates, composed of biodegradable material and autologous cells, isolated and expanded ex vivo, stimulate native-like organ tissue regeneration after implantation. A critical step for extending this strategy from bladder to kidney is the ability to isolate, characterize, and expand functional renal cells with therapeutic potential from diseased tissue. In this study, we developed methods that yield distinct subpopulations of primary kidney cells that are compatible with process development and scale-up. These methods were translated to rodent, large mammal, and human kidneys, and then to rodent and human tissues with advanced CKD. Comparative in vitro studies demonstrated that phenotype and key functional attributes were retained consistently in ex vivo cultures regardless of species or disease state, suggesting that autologous sourcing of cells that contribute to in situ kidney regeneration after injury is feasible, even with biopsies from patients with advanced CKD.

Putative nicotine receptors in the human cerebral cortex were characterized with L-[3H]nicotine, L-[3H]Nicotine binding was enhanced by the addition of Ca2+ and abolished in the presence of Na3EDTA. Association and dissociation of the ligand were rapid at 25 degrees C with t1/2 values of 2 and 3 min, respectively. Saturation binding analysis revealed an apparent single class of sites with a dissociation constant of 5.6 nM and a Hill coefficient of 1.05. There was no effect of postmortem interval on the density of binding sites assayed up to 24 h in rat frontoparietal cortex. Nicotine binding in human cortical samples was also unaltered by increasing sampling delay. In human cortical membranes, binding site density decreased with normal aging. Receptor affinity and concentration in samples of frontal cortex (Brodmann area 10) from patients with Alzheimer's disease were comparable to age-matched control values. Samples of infratemporal cortex (Brodmann area 38) from patients with Alzheimer's disease had a 50% reduction in the number of L-[3H]nicotine sites. Choline acetyltransferase activity was significantly decreased in both cortical areas. Enzyme activities in the temporal pole were reduced to 20% of control values. These data indicate that postsynaptic nicotine receptors are spared in the frontal cortex in Alzheimer's disease. In the infratemporal cortex, significant numbers of receptors remain despite the severe reduction in choline acetyltransferase activity. Replacement therapy directed at these sites may be warranted in Alzheimer's disease.

Full Text Available The objective of this work, is provide conceptual elements that constitute an integrated vision of care conditions required by the human talent in health HTH that caters to people with chronic disease (CD and their families, and that are translated into a tool for gathering information of survey type that allow characterization. This research was conducted in three phases: 1 Review of the literature. 2 Structuring a proposed survey 3 Refinement of the final version of the survey. As results, based on the conceptual framework it was possible to reach a comprehensive vision that served as the basis for the development of a survey to identify the conditions of HTH to care for people with chronic illness and their families. This instrument, called GCPC-A-THS (in Spanish, contains 37 items distributed in 6 additional dimensions that include aspects of care such as: sociodemographic variables of HTH, caring ability, information and communication technologies (ICTs as a means of support to care, continuity, security and also includes some items related to the level of professional satisfaction. The work done made it possible to achieve a comprehensive view of the characteristics and conditions required by the HTH for care to people with chronic illness and their families.

During the past decades, many epidemiological, toxicological and biological studies have been performed to assess the role of environmental chemicals as potential toxicants for diverse human disorders. However, the relationships between diseases based on chemical exposure have been rarely studied...... by computational biology. We developed a human environmental disease network (EDN) to explore and suggest novel disease-disease and chemical-disease relationships. The presented scored EDN model is built upon the integration on systems biology and chemical toxicology using chemical contaminants information...

Background: Rodent models of human congenital birth defects have been instrumental for gene discovery and investigation of mechanisms of disease. However, these models are limited by their small size making practiced intervention or detailed anatomic evaluation difficult. Swine have similar anato...

Over the past 25 years animal retroviruses have been favoured subjects of research by virologists, oncologists, and molecular biologists. Retroviruses have given us reverse transcriptase, oncogenes, and cloning vectors that may one day be exploited for human gene therapy. They have also given us leukaemia and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Kawasaki disease and tropical spastic paraparesis are thought to be associated with retrovirus infection, and other diseases such as de Qu...

To date, all clinical variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) patients are homozygous for methionine at polymorphic codon 129 (129M/M) of the prion protein (PrP) gene. However, the appearance of asymptomatic secondary vCJD infection in individuals with a PRNP codon 129 genotype other than M/M and transmission studies using animal models have raised the concern that all humans might be susceptible to vCJD prions, especially via secondary infection. To reevaluate this possibility and to analyze in detail the transmission properties of vCJD prions to transgenic animals carrying distinct codon 129 genotype, we performed intracerebral inoculation of vCJD prions to humanized knock-in mice carrying all possible codon 129 genotypes (129M/M, 129M/V, or 129V/V). All humanized knock-in mouse lines were susceptible to vCJD infection, although the attack rate gradually decreased from 129M/M to 129M/V and to 129V/V. The amount of PrP deposition including florid/amyloid plaques in the brain also gradually decreased from 129M/M to 129M/V and to 129V/V. The biochemical properties of protease-resistant abnormal PrP in the brain and transmissibility of these humanized mouse-passaged vCJD prions upon subpassage into knock-in mice expressing bovine PrP were not affected by the codon 129 genotype. These results indicate that individuals with the 129V/V genotype may be more susceptible to secondary vCJD infection than expected and may lack the neuropathological characteristics observed in vCJD patients with the 129M/M genotype. Besides the molecular typing of protease-resistant PrP in the brain, transmission studies using knock-in mice carrying bovine PrP may aid the differential diagnosis of secondary vCJD infection, especially in individuals with the 129V/V genotype.

We describe here an extension of a previous genetic characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi strains (Be-62 and Be-78) isolated from the patient Berenice, the first human case of Chagas disease [Chagas, C., 1909. Nova Tripanomíase humana. Estudos sobre morfologia e o ciclo evolutivo do Schizotrypanum cruzi, n. gen., n. sp., agente etiolójico da nova entidade morbida do homem. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 1, 159-218]. We wanted to verify the composition of T. cruzi populations originated from these two isolates. In the present work, 22 enzymatic loci (MLEE), nine RAPD primers and 7 microsatellite loci were analyzed. Clones from both strains were also characterized to verify whether these strains are mono or polyclonal. Be-62 and Be-78 strains were different in 3 out of 22 enzymatic systems, in 3 out of 9 RAPD primers tested and in all microsatellite loci investigated. However, our data suggests that both strains are phylogenetically closely related, belonging to genetic group 32 from Tibayrenc and Ayala [Tibayrenc, M., Ayala, F.J., 1988. Isoenzime variability in Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease: genetical, taxonomical, and epidemiological significance. Evolution 42, 277-292], equivalent to zymodeme 2 and T. cruzi II major lineage which, in Brazil, comprises parasites from the domestic cycle of the disease. Microsatellite analyses showed differences between the parental strains but suggested that both populations are monoclonal since each strain and their respective clones showed the same amplification products.

The pineal gland is a neuroendocrine gland located at the center of the brain. It is known to regulate various physiological functions in the body through secretion of the neurohormone melatonin. Comprehensive characterization of the human pineal gland proteome has not been undertaken to date. We employed a high-resolution mass spectrometry-based approach to characterize the proteome of the human pineal gland. A total of 5874 proteins were identified from the human pineal gland in this study. Of these, 5820 proteins were identified from the human pineal gland for the first time. Interestingly, 1136 proteins from the human pineal gland were found to contain a signal peptide domain, which indicates the secretory nature of these proteins. An unbiased global proteomic profile of this biomedically important organ should benefit molecular research to unravel the role of the pineal gland in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

Memory disorders observed in Alzheimer's disease gave rise, from the eighties, to a detailed analysis into the framework of cognitive neuropsychology which aimed at describing the deficits of very specific processes. Beyond their clinical interest, these studies contributed to the modelisation of human memory thanks to the characterization of different memory systems and their relationships. The first part of this paper gives an overview of the memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease and insists on particular cognitive phenomena. Hence, several examples are developed in the domains of semantic memory (such as hyperpriming and hypopriming effects) and autobiographical memory. Recent results highlight the existence of severe autobiographical amnesia observed in all neurodegenerative diseases, though with contrasting profiles: Ribot's gradient in Alzheimer's disease (showing that remote memories are better preserved than recent ones), reverse gradient in semantic dementia and no clear gradient in the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia. The second part of this article presents advances in cognitive neuroscience searching to disclose the cerebral substrates of these cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease. The studies using functional imaging techniques are the most informative regarding this problematic. While showing the dysfunctions of an extended network, they emphasize the selectivity of cerebral damages that are at the root of very specific cognitive dysfunctions, coming close in that way to the conceptions of cognitive neuropsychology. These neuroimaging studies unravel the existence of compensatory mechanisms, which until recently were clearly missing in the literature on neurodegenerative diseases. These different researches lead to a wide conception of human memory, not just limited to simple instrumental processes (encoding, storage, retrieval), but necessarily covering models of identity and continuity of the subject, which interact in a dynamic way

Genetic mapping provides a powerful approach to identify genes and biological processes underlying any trait influenced by inheritance, including humandiseases. We discuss the intellectual foundations of genetic mapping of Mendelian and complex traits in humans, examine lessons emerging from linkage analysis of Mendelian diseases and genome-wide association studies of common diseases, and discuss questions and challenges that lie ahead.

Purpose To quantify the extent of cellular proliferation and immunohistochemically characterize the proliferating cell types in epiretinal membranes (ERMs) from four different conditions: proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), proliferative diabetic retinopathy, post–retinal detachment, and idiopathic ERM. Methods Forty-six ERMs were removed from patients undergoing vitrectomy and immediately fixed in paraformaldehyde. The membranes were processed whole and immunolabeled with either anti-MIB-...

Highlights: {yields} Affinity purification of the autoimmune rippling muscle disease immunogenic domain of titin. {yields} Partial sequence analysis confirms that the peptides is in the I band region of titin. {yields} This region of the human titin shows high degree of homology to mouse titin N2-A. -- Abstract: Autoimmune rippling muscle disease (ARMD) is an autoimmune neuromuscular disease associated with myasthenia gravis (MG). Past studies in our laboratory recognized a very high molecular weight skeletal muscle protein antigen identified by ARMD patient antisera as the titin isoform. These past studies used antisera from ARMD and MG patients as probes to screen a human skeletal muscle cDNA library and several pBluescript clones revealed supporting expression of immunoreactive peptides. This study characterizes the products of subcloning the titin immunoreactive domain into pGEX-3X and the subsequent fusion protein. Sequence analysis of the fusion gene indicates the cloned titin domain (GenBank ID: (EU428784)) is in frame and is derived from a sequence of N2-A spanning the exons 248-250 an area that encodes the fibronectin III domain. PCR and EcoR1 restriction mapping studies have demonstrated that the inserted cDNA is of a size that is predicted by bioinformatics analysis of the subclone. Expression of the fusion protein result in the isolation of a polypeptide of 52 kDa consistent with the predicted inferred amino acid sequence. Immunoblot experiments of the fusion protein, using rippling muscle/myasthenia gravis antisera, demonstrate that only the titin domain is immunoreactive.

The distribution of the stx(1c) allele among Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and the virulence characteristics of stx(1c)-harboring STEC are unknown. In this study, we identified stx(1c) in 76 (54.3%) of 140 eae-negative, but in none of 155 eae-positive, human STEC isolates (P <

In 2013, the novel reassortant avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus was reported in China. Through enhanced surveillance, infection by the H7N9 virus in humans was first identified in Zhejiang Province. Real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) was used to confirm the infec

The distribution of the stx(1c) allele among Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and the virulence characteristics of stx(1c)-harboring STEC are unknown. In this study, we identified stx(1c) in 76 (54.3%) of 140 eae-negative, but in none of 155 eae-positive, human STEC isolates (P <

, we seek to give a preliminary characterization of the "human hematopoietic CDome." We encountered severe gaps in the knowledge of CD protein expression, mostly resulting from incomplete and unstructured data generation, which we argue inhibit both basic research as well as therapies seeking to target...

Dent disease, an X-linked familial renal tubular disorder, is a form of Fanconi syndrome associated with proteinuria, hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis, kidney stones, and eventual renal failure. We have previously used positional cloning to identify the 3{prime} part of a novel kidney-specific gene (initially termed hClC-K2, but now referred to as CLCN5), which is deleted in patients from one pedigree segregating Dent disease. Mutations that disrupt this gene have been identified in other patients with this disorder. Here we describe the isolation and characterization of the complete open reading frame of the human CLCN5 gene, which is predicted to encode a protein of 746 amino acids, with significant homology to all known members of the ClC family of voltage-gated chloride channels. CLCN5 belongs to a distinct branch of this family, which also includes the recently identified genes CLCN3 and CLCN4. We have shown that the coding region of CLCN5 is organized into 12 exons, spanning 25-30 kb of genomic DNA, and have determined the sequence of each exon-intron boundary. The elucidation of the coding sequence and exon-intron organization of CLCN5 will both expedite the evaluation of structure/function relationships of these ion channels and facilitate the screening of other patients with renal tubular dysfunction for mutations at this locus. 31 refs., 5 figs.

In 2013, the novel reassortant avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus was reported in China. Through enhanced surveillance, infection by the H7N9 virus in humans was first identified in Zhejiang Province. Real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) was used to confirm the infection. Embryonated chicken eggs were used for virus isolation from pharyngeal swabs taken from infected human patients. The H7N9 isolates were first identified by the hemagglutination test and electron microscopy, then used for whole genome sequencing. Bioinformatics software was used to construct the phylogenetic tree and for computing the mean rate of evolution of the HA gene in H7Nx and NA in HxN9. Two novel H7N9 avian influenza A viruses (A/Zhejiang/1/2013 and A/Zhejiang/2/2013) were isolated from the positive infection cases. Substitutions were found in both Zhejiang isolates and were identified as human-type viruses. All phylogenetic results indicated that the novel reassortant in H7N9 originated in viruses that infected birds. The sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the whole genome revealed the mean rate of evolution of the HA gene in H7NX to be 5.74E-3 (95% Highest posterior density: 3.8218E-3 to 7.7873E-3) while the NA gene showed 2.243E-3 (4.378E-4 to 3.79E-3) substitutions per nucleotide site per year. The novel reassortant H7N9 virus was confirmed by molecular methods to have originated in poultry, with the mutations occurring during the spread of the H7N9 virus infection. Live poultry markets played an important role in whole H7N9 circulation.

Full Text Available Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative conditions in humans and animals. In this review, we summarize the molecular background of phenotypic variability, relation of prion protein (PrP to other proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases, and pathogenesis of neuronal vulnerability. PrP exists in different forms that may be present in both diseased and non-diseased brain, however, abundant disease-associated PrP together with tissue pathology characterizes prion diseases and associates with transmissibility. Prion diseases have different etiological background with distinct pathogenesis and phenotype. Mutations of the prion protein gene are associated with genetic forms. The codon 129 polymorphism in combination with the Western blot pattern of PrP after proteinase K digestion serves as a basis for molecular subtyping of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Tissue damage may result from several parallel, interacting or subsequent pathways that involve cellular systems associated with synapses, protein processing, oxidative stress, autophagy, and apoptosis.

The interaction of man with viral agents was possibly a key factor shaping human evolution, culture and civilization from its outset. Evidence of the effect of disease, since the early stages of human speciation, through pre-historical times to the present suggest that the types of viruses associated with man changed in time. As human populations progressed technologically, they grew in numbers and density. As a consequence different viruses found suitable conditions to thrive and establish l...

It is widely accepted that neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) play a critical role in neutrophil-associated lung inflammatory and tissue-destructive diseases. To investigate NSP pathogenic role(s), various mouse experimental models have been developed that mimic acutely or chronically injured human lungs. We and others are using mouse exposure to cigarette smoke as a model for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with or without exacerbation. However, the relative contribution of NSPs to lung disease processes as well as their underlying mechanisms remains still poorly understood. And the lack of purified mouse NSPs and their specific substrates have hampered advances in these studies. In this work, we compared mouse and human NSPs and generated three-dimensional models of murine NSPs based on three-dimensional structures of their human homologs. Analyses of these models provided compelling evidence that peptide substrate specificities of human and mouse NSPs are different despite their conserved cleft and close structural resemblance. These studies allowed us to synthesize for the first time novel sensitive fluorescence resonance energy transfer substrates for individual mouse NSPs. Our findings and the newly identified substrates should better our understanding about the role of NSPs in the pathogenesis of cigarette-associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as other neutrophils-associated inflammatory diseases.

Full Text Available The interaction of man with viral agents was possibly a key factor shaping human evolution, culture and civilization from its outset. Evidence of the effect of disease, since the early stages of human speciation, through pre-historical times to the present suggest that the types of viruses associated with man changed in time. As human populations progressed technologically, they grew in numbers and density. As a consequence different viruses found suitable conditions to thrive and establish long-lasting associations with man. Although not all viral agents cause disease and some may in fact be considered beneficial, the present situation of overpopulation, poverty and ecological inbalance may have devastating effets on human progress. Recently emerged diseases causing massive pandemics (eg., HIV-1 and HCV, dengue, etc. are becoming formidable challenges, which may have a direct impact on the fate of our species.

diabetes (T2D), and irritable bowel syndrome, and some animal experiments have suggested causality. However, few studies have validated causality in humans and the underlying mechanisms remain largely to be elucidated. We discuss how systems biology approaches combined with new experimental technologies......The human gut microbiota encompasses a densely populated ecosystem that provides essential functions for host development, immune maturation, and metabolism. Alterations to the gut microbiota have been observed in numerous diseases, including human metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2...... may disentangle some of the mechanistic details in the complex interactions of diet, microbiota, and host metabolism and may provide testable hypotheses for advancing our current understanding of human-microbiota interaction....

In the past few years, there has been a nascent convergence of scientific understanding of inherited humandiseases with epigenetics. Identified epigenetic processes involved in humandisease include covalent DNA modifications, covalent histone modifications, and histone relocation. Each of these processes influences chromatin structure and thereby regulates gene expression and DNA methylation, replication, recombination, and repair. The importance of these processes for nearly all aspects of normal growth and development is illustrated by the array of multi-system disorders and neoplasias caused by their dysregulation.

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The Enteric Nervous system (ENS is a part of the Peripheral nervous system (PNS that controls the peristaltic activity of the gut wall which is essential for propulsion of food in the digestive tract. It is composed of a large number of neurons and glial cells, distributed throughout the length of the gut. These ganglion cells develop from the neural crest in the embryo. Failure of complete colonization of the gut by these enteric neural crest cells during early development of life results in absence of ganglia or neurons in a portion of the gut, usually the colon which leads to aperistaltis and severe intestinal obstruction. This is known as Hirschsprung’s disease (HSCR also known as congenital megacolon. HSCR affects 1 in 4500 newborns (1, 2. It appears either sporadically or has a familial basis and is often associated with other developmental defects. The main forms of treatment of HSCR are surgical resection of the aganglionic segment and pull through of the normal bowel. At present research is aimed at developing Cell based therapies for replacement of ganglion cells or enteric neuronal cells in the aganglionic portion of the gut thus aiming at restoring the function of the gut (1, 3, 5. In this study we have isolated, in vitro expanded and characterized the Enteric Neuronal cells derived from human gut full thickness biopsy samplesMATERIALS AND METHODS: The postnatal gut full thickness biopsy samples of size 2-4 mm were obtained using from 13 patients undergoing gut resection surgery after informed consent. The samples were washed in Phosphate Buffer saline and using forceps, the outer smooth muscle layers along with the myenteric plexus were peeled off from the underlying tissue as strips. The strips were washed in Phosphate Buffer saline (PBS and treated with 1mg/ml Collagenase/Dispase mixture in PBS for 30-45 min at 37°C. The digested cells were filtered with 70µm filter and the cell suspensions were centrifuged at 1800

Human prion diseases are a group of very rare diseases with a unique pathogenesis and, due to an inauspicious prognosis and unavailability of therapy, with fatal consequences. The etiopathogenetic background is the presence of pathologically misfolded prion protein, highly resistant to denaturation, the aggregation and presence of which in the brain tissue causes irreversible neuronal damage. The most frequent prion disease in humans is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) which occurs in sporadic, hereditary/familial, or acquired/infectious/iatrogenic forms. A new form of CJD, variant CJD, is considered to be linked to dietary exposure to beef products from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and to infection via blood transfusion. The clinical picture of these diseases is characterized by a rapidly progressing dementia, cerebellar and extrapyramidal symptoms, and rather specific MRI, EEG, and CSF findings. Clinically, the diagnosis is described as possible or probable prion disease and needs to be confirmed by neuropathological or immunological investigation of the brain tissue. Epidemiological data from the Czech Republic spanning the last decade are presented.

Many humandiseases and the death of most supercentenarians are related to protein aggregation. Neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD), Parkinson's disease (PD), frontotemporallobar degeneration, etc. Such diseases are due to progressive loss of structure or function of neurons caused by protein aggregation. For example, AD is considered to be related to aggregation of Aβ40 (peptide with 40 amino acids) and Aβ42 (peptide with 42 amino acids) and HD is considered to be related to aggregation of polyQ (polyglutamine) peptides. In this paper, we briefly review our recent discovery of key factors for protein aggregation. We used a lattice model to study the aggregation rates of proteins and found that the probability for a protein sequence to appear in the conformation of the aggregated state can be used to determine the temperature at which proteins can aggregate most quickly. We used molecular dynamics and simple models of polymer chains to study relaxation and aggregation of proteins under various conditions and found that when the bending-angle dependent and torsion-angle dependent interactions are zero or very small, then protein chains tend to aggregate at lower temperatures. All atom models were used to identify a key peptide chain for the aggregation of insulin chains and to find that two polyQ chains prefer anti-parallel conformation. It is pointed out that in many cases, protein aggregation does not result from protein mis-folding. A potential drug from Chinese medicine was found for Alzheimer's disease.

Full Text Available Human Chagas disease is a purely accidental occurrence. As humans came into contact with the natural foci of infection might then have become infected as a single addition to the already extensive host range of Trypanosoma cruzi that includes other primates. Thus began a process of adaptation and domiciliation to human habitations through which the vectors had direct access to abundant food as well as protection from climatic changes and predators. Our work deals with the extraction and specific amplification by polymerase chain reaction of T. cruzi DNA obtained from mummified human tissues and the positive diagnosis of Chagas disease in a series of 4,000-year-old Pre-Hispanic human mummies from the northern coast of Chile. The area has been inhabited at least for 7,000 years, first by hunters, fishers and gatherers, and then gradually by more permanent settlements. The studied specimens belonged to the Chinchorro culture, a people inhabiting the area now occupied by the modern city of Arica. These were essentially fishers with a complex religious ideology, which accounts for the preservation of their dead in the way of mummified bodies, further enhanced by the extremely dry conditions of the desert. Chinchorro mummies are, perhaps, the oldest preserved bodies known to date.

The molecular revolution that is transforming the entire biomedical field has had far-reaching impact in its application to inherited human muscle disease. The gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy was one of the first cloned without knowledge of the defective protein product. This success was based upon the availability of key chromosomal aberrations that provided molecular landmarks for the disease locus. Subsequent discoveries regarding the mode of expression for this gene, the structure and localization of its protein product dystrophin, and molecular diagnosis of affected and carrier individuals constitute a paradigm for investigation of human genetics. Finding the gene for myotonic muscular dystrophy is requiring the brute force approach of cloning several million bases of DNA, identifying expressed sequences, and characterizing candidate genes. The gene that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been found serendipitously to be one of the genetic markers on chromosome 14, the {beta} myosin heavy chain.

Full Text Available Pathological mutations in tRNA genes and tRNA processing enzymes are numerous and result in very complicated clinical phenotypes. Mitochondrial tRNA (mt-tRNA genes are hotspots for pathological mutations and over 200 mt-tRNA mutations have been linked to various disease states. Often these mutations prevent tRNA aminoacylation. Disrupting this primary function affects protein synthesis and the expression, folding, and function of oxidative phosphorylation enzymes. Mitochondrial tRNA mutations manifest in a wide panoply of diseases related to cellular energetics, including COX deficiency (cytochrome C oxidase, mitochondrial myopathy, MERRF (Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers, and MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes. Diseases caused by mt-tRNA mutations can also affect very specific tissue types, as in the case of neurosensory non-syndromic hearing loss and pigmentary retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Importantly, mitochondrial heteroplasmy plays a role in disease severity and age of onset as well. Not surprisingly, mutations in enzymes that modify cytoplasmic and mitochondrial tRNAs are also linked to a diverse range of clinical phenotypes. In addition to compromised aminoacylation of the tRNAs, mutated modifying enzymes can also impact tRNA expression and abundance, tRNA modifications, tRNA folding, and even tRNA maturation (e.g., splicing. Some of these pathological mutations in tRNAs and processing enzymes are likely to affect non-canonical tRNA functions, and contribute to the diseases without significantly impacting on translation. This chapter will review recent literature on the relation of mitochondrial and cytoplasmic tRNA, and enzymes that process tRNAs, to humandisease. We explore the mechanisms involved in the clinical presentation of these various diseases with an emphasis on neurological disease.

Salivary lipids have been scarcely studied, and the reported results present disparities. This literature review is presented based on the importance of saliva as a diagnostic and/or prognostic medium for various diseases, its lipid content, and on its potential use for the analysis of nutritional markers that contribute to the study of diseases related to lipid consumption and metabolism.

The human ocular surface, consisting of the cornea and conjunctiva, is colonized by an expansive, diverse microbial community. Molecular-based methods, such as 16S rRNA sequencing, has allowed for more comprehensive and precise identification of the species composition of the ocular surface microbiota compared to traditional culture-based methods. Evidence suggests that the normal microbiota plays a protective immunological role in preventing the proliferation of pathogenic species and thus, alterations in the homeostatic microbiome may be linked to ophthalmic pathologies. Further investigation of the ocular surface microbiome, as well as the microbiome of other areas of the body such as the oral mucosa and gut, and their role in the pathophysiology of diseases is a significant, emerging field of research, and may someday enable the development of novel probiotic approaches for the treatment and prevention of ophthalmic diseases.

The torso plays an important role in the human-like operation of humanoids. In this paper, a method is proposed to analyze the behavior of the human torso by using inertial and magnetic sensing tools. Experiments are conducted to characterize the motion performance of the human torso during daily routine operations. Furthermore, the forces acting on the human body during these operations are evaluated to design and validate the performance of a humanoid robot.

Full Text Available Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV represents a prototypic pathogenic member of the β-subgroup of the herpesvirus family. A range of HCMV features like its lytic replication in multiple tissues, the lifelong persistence through periods of latency and intermitting reactivation, the extraordinary large proteome, and extensive manipulation of adaptive and innate immunity make HCMV a high profile candidate for involvement in autoimmune disorders. We surveyed the available literature for reports on HCMV association with onset or exacerbation of autoimmune disease. A causative linkage between HCMV and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, systemic sclerosis (SSc, diabetes mellitus type 1, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA is suggested by the literature. However, a clear association of HCMV seroprevalence and disease could not be established, leaving the question open whether HCMV could play a coresponsible role for onset of disease. For convincing conclusions population-based prospective studies must be performed in the future. Specific immunopathogenic mechanisms by which HCMV could contribute to the course of autoimmune disease have been suggested, for example, molecular mimicry by UL94 in SSc and UL83/pp65 in SLE patients, as well as aggravation of joint inflammation by induction and expansion of CD4+/CD28− T-cells in RA patients. Further studies are needed to validate these findings and to lay the grounds for targeted therapeutic intervention.

The human breast is exposed to aluminium from many sources including diet and personal care products, but dermal application of aluminium-based antiperspirant salts provides a local long-term source of exposure. Recent measurements have shown that aluminium is present in both tissue and fat of the human breast but at levels which vary both between breasts and between tissue samples from the same breast. We have recently found increased levels of aluminium in noninvasively collected nipple aspirate fluids taken from breast cancer patients (mean 268 ± 28 μg/l) compared with control healthy subjects (mean 131 ± 10 μg/l) providing evidence of raised aluminium levels in the breast microenvironment when cancer is present. The measurement of higher levels of aluminium in type I human breast cyst fluids (median 150 μg/l) compared with human serum (median 6 μg/l) or human milk (median 25 μg/l) warrants further investigation into any possible role of aluminium in development of this benign breast disease. Emerging evidence for aluminium in several breast structures now requires biomarkers of aluminium action in order to ascertain whether the presence of aluminium has any biological impact. To this end, we report raised levels of proteins that modulate iron homeostasis (ferritin, transferrin) in parallel with raised aluminium in nipple aspirate fluids in vivo, and we report overexpression of mRNA for several S100 calcium binding proteins following long-term exposure of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in vitro to aluminium chlorhydrate.

textabstractSulfation is an important pathway of thyroid hormone metabolism that facilitates the degradation of the hormone by the type I iodothyronine deiodinase, but little is known about which human sulfotransferase isoenzymes are involved. We have investigated the s

Aicardi–Goutières syndrome is an inflammatory disease occurring due to mutations in any of TREX1, RNASEH2A, RNASEH2B, RNASEH2C, SAMHD1, ADAR or IFIH1. We report on 374 patients from 299 families with mutations in these seven genes. Most patients conformed to one of two fairly stereotyped clinical profiles; either exhibiting an in utero disease-onset (74 patients; 22.8% of all patients where data were available), or a post-natal presentation, usually within the first year of life (223 patients; 68.6%), characterized by a sub-acute encephalopathy and a loss of previously acquired skills. Other clinically distinct phenotypes were also observed; particularly, bilateral striatal necrosis (13 patients; 3.6%) and non-syndromic spastic paraparesis (12 patients; 3.4%). We recorded 69 deaths (19.3% of patients with follow-up data). Of 285 patients for whom data were available, 210 (73.7%) were profoundly disabled, with no useful motor, speech and intellectual function. Chilblains, glaucoma, hypothyroidism, cardiomyopathy, intracerebral vasculitis, peripheral neuropathy, bowel inflammation and systemic lupus erythematosus were seen frequently enough to be confirmed as real associations with the Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome phenotype. We observed a robust relationship between mutations in all seven genes with increased type I interferon activity in cerebrospinal fluid and serum, and the increased expression of interferon-stimulated gene transcripts in peripheral blood. We recorded a positive correlation between the level of cerebrospinal fluid interferon activity assayed within one year of disease presentation and the degree of subsequent disability. Interferon-stimulated gene transcripts remained high in most patients, indicating an ongoing disease process. On the basis of substantial morbidity and mortality, our data highlight the urgent need to define coherent treatment strategies for the phenotypes associated with mutations in the Aicardi–Goutières syndrome

Background Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) is a public health problem worldwide and particularly in Africa with high disease burden. This study characterized Salmonella isolates from humans in Ghana to determine serovar distribution, phage types, and antimicrobial resistance. Further, the clonal...... related to patterns of poultry isolates obtained in a previous study in Ghana. Conclusions Cephalosporin resistance is uncommon among Salmonella from humans in Ghana. Poultry may be an important source of human salmonellosis. There is an urgent need for the implementation of routine surveillance...... of antimicrobial use and bacterial resistance among humans in Ghana....

The human microbiome consists of the total diversity of microbiota and their genes. High-throughput sequencing has allowed for inexpensive and rapid evaluation of taxonomic representation and functional capability of the microbiomes of human body sites. Autoimmune and inflammatory rheumatic diseases are characterized by dysbiosis of the microbiome. Microbiome dysbiosis can be influenced by host genetics and environmental factors. Dysbiosis is also associated with shifts in certain functional pathways. The goal of this article is to provide a current and comprehensive review of the unique characteristics of the microbiome of patients with autoimmune and inflammatory rheumatic diseases, measured using high-throughput sequencing. We also highlight the need for broader studies utilizing a longitudinal approach to better understand how the human microbiome contributes to disease susceptibility, and to characterize the role of the interaction between host genetics and microbial diversity in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, disease manifestations, and progression.

Full Text Available Throughout evolution, plants have developed the ability to produce secondary phenolic metabolites, which are important for their interactions with the environment, reproductive strategies and defense mechanisms. These (polyphenolic compounds are a heterogeneous group of natural antioxidants found in vegetables, cereals and leguminous that exert beneficial and protective actions on human health, playing roles such as enzymatic reaction inhibitors and cofactors, toxic chemicals scavengers and biochemical reaction substrates, increasing the absorption of essential nutrients and selectively inhibiting deleterious intestinal bacteria. Polyphenols present in some commodity grains, such as soy and cocoa beans, as well as in other vegetables considered security foods for developing countries, including cassava, taro and beetroot, all of them cropped in Brazil, have been identified and quantified in order to point out their bioavailability and the adequate dietary intake to promote health. The effects of the flavonoid and non-flavonoid compounds present in these vegetables, their metabolism and their effects on preventing chronic and degenerative disorders like cancers, diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular and neurological diseases are herein discussed based on recent epidemiological studies.

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are vital to health of the outer retina, however, are often compromised in ageing and ocular diseases that lead to blindness. Early manifestation of RPE disruption occurs at the cellular level, but while in vivo biomarkers at this scale hold considerable promise, RPE cells have proven extremely challenging to image in the living human eye. Recently we addressed this problem by using organelle motility as a novel contrast agent to enhance the RPE cell in conjunction with 3D resolution of adaptive optics-optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) to section the RPE layer. In this study, we expand on the central novelty of our method - organelle motility - by characterizing the dynamics of the motility in individual RPE cells, important because of its direct link to RPE physiology. To do this, AO-OCT videos of the same retinal patch were acquired at approximately 1 min intervals or less, time stamped, and registered in 3D with sub-cellular accuracy. Motility was quantified by an exponential decay time constant, the time for motility to decorrelate the speckle field across an RPE cell. In two normal subjects, we found the decay time constant to be just 3 seconds, thus indicating rapid motility in normal RPE cells.

In surveillance applications, head and body orientation of people is of primary importance for assessing many behavioral traits. Unfortunately, in this context people are often encoded by a few, noisy pixels so that their characterization is difficult. We face this issue, proposing a computational framework which is based on an expressive descriptor, the covariance of features. Covariances have been employed for pedestrian detection purposes, actually a binary classification problem on Riemannian manifolds. In this paper, we show how to extend to the multiclassification case, presenting a novel descriptor, named weighted array of covariances, especially suited for dealing with tiny image representations. The extension requires a novel differential geometry approach in which covariances are projected on a unique tangent space where standard machine learning techniques can be applied. In particular, we adopt the Campbell-Baker-Hausdorff expansion as a means to approximate on the tangent space the genuine (geodesic) distances on the manifold in a very efficient way. We test our methodology on multiple benchmark datasets, and also propose new testing sets, getting convincing results in all the cases.

Let's face it: wherever we go, we will inevitably carry along the little critters that live in and on us. Conventional wisdom has long held that it's unlikely those critters could survive the space environment, but in 2007 microscopic animals called Tardigrades survived exposure to space and in 2008 Cyanobacteria lived for 548 days outside the International Space Station (ISS). But what about the organisms we might reasonably expect a crewed spacecraft to leak or vent? Do we even know what they are? How long might our tiny hitch-hikers survive in close proximity to a warm spacecraft that periodically leaks/vents water or oxygen-and how might they mutate with long-duration exposure? Unlike the Mars rovers that we cleaned once and sent on their way, crew members will provide a constantly regenerating contaminant source. Are we prepared to certify that we can meet forward contamination protocols as we search for life at new destinations? This project has four technical objectives: 1. TEST: Develop a test plan to leverage existing equipment (i.e. ISS) to characterize the kinds of organisms we can reasonably expect pressurized, crewed volumes to vent or leak overboard; as part of testing, we'll need to develop an Extravehicular Activity (EVA)-compatible tool that can withstand the pressure and temperature extremes of space, as well as collect, separate, and store multiple samples; 2. ANALYSIS: Develop an analysis plan to study those organisms in relevant destination environments, including spacecraft-induced conditions; 3. MODEL: Develop a modeling plan to model organism transport mechanisms in relevant destination environments; 4. SHARE: Develop a plan to disseminate findings and integrate recommendations into exploration requirements & ops. In short, we propose a system engineering approach to roadmap the necessary experiments, analysis, and modeling up front--rather than try to knit together disparate chunks of data into a sensible conclusion after the fact.

Genetically modified animal models are important for understanding the pathogenesis of humandisease and developing therapeutic strategies.Although genetically modified mice have been widely used to model humandiseases,some of these mouse models do not replicate important disease symptoms or pathology.Pigs are more similar to humans than mice in anatomy,physiology,and genome.Thus,pigs are considered to be better animal models to mimic some humandiseases.This review describes genetically modified pigs that have been used to model various diseases including neurological,cardiovascular,and diabetic disorders.We also discuss the development in gene modification technology that can facilitate the generation of transgenic pig models for humandiseases.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, despite the fact that it is a curable disease when diagnosed early. The development of new screening methods to aid in early diagnosis or identify precursor lesions at risk for progressing to CRC will be vital to improving the survival rate of individuals predisposed to CRC. Metabolomics is an advancing area that has recently seen numerous applications to the field of cancer research. Altered metabolism has been studied for many years as a means to understand and characterize cancer. However, further work is required to establish standard procedures and improve our ability to identify distinct metabolomic profiles that can be used to diagnose CRC or predict disease progression. The present study demonstrates the use of direct infusion traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry to distinguish metabolic profiles from CRC samples and matched non-neoplastic epithelium as well as metastatic and primary tumors at different stages of disease (T1-T4). By directly infusing our samples, the analysis time was reduced significantly, thus increasing the speed and efficiency of this method compared to traditional metabolomics platforms. Partial least squares discriminant analysis was used to visualize differences between the metabolic profiles of sample types and to identify the specific m/z features that led to this differentiation. Identification of the distinct m/z features was made using the human metabolome database. We discovered alterations in fatty acid biosynthesis and oxidative, glycolytic, and polyamine pathways that distinguish tumors from non-malignant colonic epithelium as well as various stages of CRC. Although further studies are needed, our results indicate that colonic epithelial cells undergo metabolic reprogramming during their evolution to CRC, and the distinct metabolites could serve as diagnostic tools or potential targets in therapy or primary prevention. Graphical Abstract

Copy number variants (CNVs) play an important role in humandisease and population diversity. Advancements in technology have allowed for the analysis of CNVs in thousands of individuals with disease in addition to thousands of controls. These studies have identified rare CNVs associated with neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability. In addition, copy number polymorphisms (CNPs) are present at higher frequencies in the population, show high diversity in copy number, sequence, and structure, and have been associated with multiple phenotypes, primarily related to immune or environmental response. However, the landscape of copy number variation still remains largely unexplored, especially for smaller CNVs and those embedded within complex regions of the human genome. An integrated approach including characterization of single nucleotide variants and CNVs in a large number of individuals with disease and normal genomes holds the promise of thoroughly elucidating the genetic basis of humandisease and diversity.

According to the disease module hypothesis the cellular components associated with a disease segregate in the same neighborhood of the human interactome, the map of biologically relevant molecular interactions. Yet, given the incompleteness of the interactome and the limited knowledge of disease-associated genes, it is not obvious if the available data has sufficient coverage to map out modules associated with each disease. Here we derive mathematical conditions for the identifiability of disease modules and show that the network-based location of each disease module determines its pathobiological relationship to other diseases. For example, diseases with overlapping network modules show significant co-expression patterns, symptom similarity, and comorbidity, while diseases residing in separated network neighborhoods are clinically distinct. These tools represent an interactome-based platform to predict molecular commonalities between clinically related diseases, even if they do not share disease genes. PMID:25700523

Control of human infectious disease has been promoted as a valuable ecosystem service arising from the conservation of biodiversity. There are two commonly discussed mechanisms by which biodiversity loss could increase rates of infectious disease in a landscape. First, loss of competitors or predators could facilitate an increase in the abundance of competent reservoir hosts. Second, biodiversity loss could disproportionately affect non-competent, or less competent reservoir hosts, which would otherwise interfere with pathogen transmission to human populations by, for example, wasting the bites of infected vectors. A negative association between biodiversity and disease risk, sometimes called the "dilution effect hypothesis," has been supported for a few disease agents, suggests an exciting win-win outcome for the environment and society, and has become a pervasive topic in the disease ecology literature. Case studies have been assembled to argue that the dilution effect is general across disease agents. Less touted are examples in which elevated biodiversity does not affect or increases infectious disease risk for pathogens of public health concern. In order to assess the likely generality of the dilution effect, we review the association between biodiversity and public health across a broad variety of humandisease agents. Overall, we hypothesize that conditions for the dilution effect are unlikely to be met for most important diseases of humans. Biodiversity probably has little net effect on most human infectious diseases but, when it does have an effect, observation and basic logic suggest that biodiversity will be more likely to increase than to decrease infectious disease risk.

Characterizing the cognitive declines associated with aging, and differentiating them from the effects of disease in older adults, are important goals for human neuroscience researchers. This is also an issue of public health urgency in countries with rapidly aging populations. Progress toward understanding cognitive aging is complicated by numerous factors. Researchers interested in cognitive changes in healthy older adults need to consider these complexities when they design and interpre...

Human pluripotent stem cells represent a powerful tool to study human embryonic development and disease but also open up novel strategies for cell replacement therapies. Their capacity to give rise to every cell type of the human body, meanwhile, enables researchers to generate high yields of mesodermal, ectodermal, but also endodermal-derived tissues such as hepatic, pancreatic, or intestinal cells. Another progress in the field came with the advent of 3-dimensional culture conditions, so-called organoids, which facilitate maturation of stem cells and in turn more faithfully recapitulate human tissue architecture. While several studies reported the derivation of organoid cultures from adult intestinal tissue, the derivation of intestinal organoids derived from plucked human hair of Crohn's disease patients has not been reported. The current research project reports such successful generation and characterization of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from hair sheet keratinocyte cultures of a patient with Crohn's disease. Stepwise differentiation along the intestinal lineage showed no differences in intermediate stages such as definitive endoderm formation. We also directed the patterned primitive gut tube toward intestinal organoids resembling the cellular architecture of human "miniguts". As expected from current pathophysiological knowledge on Crohn's disease, there were no obvious morphological differences in the "miniguts" derived from healthy control and diseased patient-induced pluripotent stem cells. Taken together, our platform will enable for detailed and complementary phenotyping of the pathophysiology of Crohn's disease in a novel disease-in-a-dish format.

Despite the considerable progress of medicine, parasitic diseases still pose a great threat to human health and life. Among parasitic diseases, those transmitted by vectors, mainly arthropods, play a particular role. These diseases occur most frequently in the poorest countries and affect a vast part of the human population. They include malaria, babesiosis, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and filariasis. This study presents those vector-transmitted diseases that are responsible for the greatest incidence and mortality of people on a global scale. Attention is focused primarily on diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, Hemiptera and ticks.

Full Text Available Peripheral blood was collected from a clinically diagnosed 72-year old male patient with later onset Alzheimer's disease. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs were reprogrammed with the Yamanaka KMOS reprogramming factors using the Sendai-virus reprogramming system. The transgene-free iPSC line showed pluripotency verified by immunofluorescent staining for pluripotency markers, and the iPSC line was able to differentiate into the 3 germ layers in vivo. The iPSC line also showed normal karyotype. This in vitro cellular model will be useful for studying the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease.

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), whether embryonic stem cells or induced PSCs, offer enormous opportunities for regenerative medicine and other biomedical applications once we have developed the ability to harness their capacity for extensive differentiation. Central to this is our ability to identify and characterize such PSCs, but this is fraught with potential difficulties that arise from a tension between functional definitions of pluripotency and the more convenient use of 'markers', a problem exacerbated by ethical issues, our lack of knowledge of early human embryonic development, and differences from the mouse paradigm.

Human stem cells are scalable cell populations capable of cellular differentiation.This makes them a very attractive in vitro cellular resource and in theory provides unlimited amounts of primary cells.Such an approach has the potential to improve our understanding of human biology and treating disease.In the future it may be possible to deploy novel stem cell-based approaches to treat human liver diseases.In recent years,efficient hepatic differentiation from human stem cells has been achieved by several research groups including our own.In this review we provide an overview of the field and discuss the future potential and limitations of stem cell technology.

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências Biomédicas, Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Universidade do Algarve, 2016 In the past 30 years developed and developing countries faced significant lifestyle changes that made the incidence of diabetes mellitus to reach pandemic proportion worldwide. This increase, seen in both types of the disease, made diabetes mellitus one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality of our times. Bone is one t of several organs that are aff...

An association between idiopathic hemochromatosis (HFE) and the HLA-A3 locus has been previously well-established. In an attempt to identify potential HFE candidate genes, a genomic DNA fragment distal to the HLA-A9 breakpoint was used to screen a B cell cDNA library; a member (3.8-1) of a new multigene family, composed of five distinct genomic cross-reactive fragments, was identified. Clone 3.8-1 represents the 3{prime} end of 9.6 kb transcript which is expressed in multiple tissues including the spleen, thymus, lung and kidney. Sequencing and genome database analysis indicate that 3.8-1 is unique, with no homology to any known entries. The genomic residence of 3-8.1, defined by polymorphism analysis and physical mapping using YAC clones, appears to be absent from the genomes of higher primates, although four other cross-reactivities are maintained. The absence of this gene as well as other probes which map in the TNF to HLA-B interval, suggest that this portion of the human HMC, located between the Class I and Class III regions, arose in humans as the result of a post-speciation insertional event. The large size of the 3.8-1 gene and the possible categorization of 3.8-1 as a human-specific gene are significant given the genetic data that place an autoimmune susceptibility element for IDDM and myasthenia gravis in the precise region where this gene resides. In an attempt to isolate the 5{prime} end of this large transcript, we have constructed a cosmid contig which encompasses the genomic locus of this gene and are progressively isolating coding sequences by exon trapping.

Jan 31, 2014 ... tant role in cellular senescence, tumorigenesis and in several diseases ... A correlation between epigenetic DNA modifications and human life span ... Most studies demonstrated that aging is associated with a relaxation in ...

Entropy measures have been widely used to quantify the complexity of theoretical and experimental dynamical systems. In this paper, the value of using entropy measures to characterizehuman locomotion is demonstrated based on their construct validity, predictive validity in a simple model of human walking and convergent validity in an experimental study. Results show that four of the five considered entropy measures increase meaningfully with the increased probability of falling in a simple passive bipedal walker model. The same four entropy measures also experienced statistically significant increases in response to increasing age and gait impairment caused by cognitive interference in an experimental study. Of the considered entropy measures, the proposed quantized dynamical entropy (QDE) and quantization-based approximation of sample entropy (QASE) offered the best combination of sensitivity to changes in gait dynamics and computational efficiency. Based on these results, entropy appears to be a viable candidate for assessing the stability of human locomotion.

phenylketonuria, Parkinson's disease, α-1-antitrypsin deficiency, familial neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus, and short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. Despite the differences, an emerging paradigm suggests that the cellular effects of protein misfolding provide a common framework that may contribute......Protein misfolding is a common event in living cells. In young and healthy cells, the misfolded protein load is disposed of by protein quality control (PQC) systems. In aging cells and in cells from certain individuals with genetic diseases, the load may overwhelm the PQC capacity, resulting...... in accumulation of misfolded proteins. Dependent on the properties of the protein and the efficiency of the PQC systems, the accumulated protein may be degraded or assembled into toxic oligomers and aggregates. To illustrate this concept, we discuss a number of very different protein misfolding diseases including...

Full Text Available The onset of human degenerative diseases in humans, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, neurodevelopmental disease and neurodegenerative disease has been shown to be related to exposures to persistent organic pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorinated pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and others, as well as to polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, bisphenol-A and other aromatic lipophilic species. The onset of these diseases has also been related to exposures to transition metal ions. A physiochemical mechanism for the onset of degenerative environmental disease dependent upon exposure to a combination of lipophilic aromatic hydrocarbons and transition metal ions is proposed here. The findings reported here also, for the first time, explain why aromatic hydrocarbons exhibit greater toxicity than aliphatic hydrocarbons of equal carbon numbers.

Full Text Available Echinococcosis is among the most neglected parasitic diseases. Development of new drugs and other treatment modalities receives very little attention, if any. In most developed countries, Cystic Echinococcosis (CE is an imported disease of very low incidence and prevalence and is found almost exclusively in migrants from endemic regions. In endemic regions, predominantly settings with limited resources, patient numbers are high. Whole communities do not have access to appropriate treatment. The choice of treatment modalities is limited because of poor infrastructure and shortage of equipment and drugs. In this context, CE meets the criteria for a neglected disease. Furthermore, the terminology related to the designations around the parasite, its evolution and some therapeutic procedures is not uniform and sometimes inappropriate terms and wrong designations are used based on incorrect concepts. Although all of us know the different aspects of the disease it is pertinent to remember some important points and, above all, to clarify some aspects concerning the hydatid cyst's nomenclature in order to understand better the therapeutic options in the liver locations, particularly the different surgical approaches.

Human Demodex mites (Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis) are unique in that they are an obligate human ectoparasite that can inhabit the pilosebaceous unit lifelong without causing obvious host immune response in most cases. The mode of symbiosis between humans and human Demodex mites is unclear, while the pathogenicity of human Demodex mites in many inflammatory skin diseases is now better understood. Primary human demodicosis is a skin disease sui generis not associated with local or systemic immunosuppression. Diagnosis is often underestimated and differentiation from folliculitis, papulopustular rosacea and perioral dermatitis is not always straightforward. Dependent on the morphology and degree of inflammation, the clinical manifestations can be classified into spinulate, papulopustular, nodulocystic, crustic and fulminant demodicosis. Therapy success can be achieved only with acaricides/arachidicides. The effective doses, optimal regimen and antimicrobial resistance remain to be determined.

The distributions of most infectious agents causing disease in humans are poorly resolved or unknown. However, poorly known and unknown agents contribute to the global burden of disease and will underlie many future disease risks. Existing patterns of infectious disease co-occurrence could thus play a critical role in resolving or anticipating current and future disease threats. We analyzed the global occurrence patterns of 187 human infectious diseases across 225 countries and seven epidemiological classes (human-specific, zoonotic, vector-borne, non-vector-borne, bacterial, viral, and parasitic) to show that human infectious diseases exhibit distinct spatial grouping patterns at a global scale. We demonstrate, using outbreaks of Ebola virus as a test case, that this spatial structuring provides an untapped source of prior information that could be used to tighten the focus of a range of health-related research and management activities at early stages or in data-poor settings, including disease surveillance, outbreak responses, or optimizing pathogen discovery. In examining the correlates of these spatial patterns, among a range of geographic, epidemiological, environmental, and social factors, mammalian biodiversity was the strongest predictor of infectious disease co-occurrence overall and for six of the seven disease classes examined, giving rise to a striking congruence between global pathogeographic and "Wallacean" zoogeographic patterns. This clear biogeographic signal suggests that infectious disease assemblages remain fundamentally constrained in their distributions by ecological barriers to dispersal or establishment, despite the homogenizing forces of globalization. Pathogeography thus provides an overarching context in which other factors promoting infectious disease emergence and spread are set.

Full Text Available Physico-chemical properties of the mutations G34R, P39L and E41K in the N-terminal domain of human heat shock protein B1 (HspB1, which have been associated with hereditary motor neuron neuropathy, were analyzed. Heat-induced aggregation of all mutants started at lower temperatures than for the wild type protein. All mutations decreased susceptibility of the N- and C-terminal parts of HspB1 to chymotrypsinolysis. All mutants formed stable homooligomers with a slightly larger apparent molecular weight compared to the wild type protein. All mutations analyzed decreased or completely prevented phosphorylation-induced dissociation of HspB1 oligomers. When mixed with HspB6 and heated, all mutants yielded heterooligomers with apparent molecular weights close to ~400 kDa. Finally, the three HspB1 mutants possessed lower chaperone-like activity towards model substrates (lysozyme, malate dehydrogenase and insulin compared to the wild type protein, conversely the environmental probe bis-ANS yielded higher fluorescence with the mutants than with the wild type protein. Thus, in vitro the analyzed N-terminal mutations increase stability of large HspB1 homooligomers, prevent their phosphorylation-dependent dissociation, modulate their interaction with HspB6 and decrease their chaperoning capacity, preventing normal functioning of HspB1.

Cis-acting regulatory sequences are required for the proper temporal and spatial control of gene expression. Variation in gene expression is highly heritable and a significant determinant of humandisease susceptibility. The diversity of human genetic diseases attributed, in whole or in part, to mutations in non-coding regulatory sequences is on the rise. Improvements in genome-wide methods of associating genetic variation with humandisease and predicting DNA with cis-regulatory potential are two of the major reasons for these recent advances. This review will highlight select examples from the literature that have successfully integrated genetic and genomic approaches to uncover the molecular basis by which cis-regulatory mutations alter gene expression and contribute to humandisease. The fine mapping of disease-causing variants has led to the discovery of novel cis-acting regulatory elements that, in some instances, are located as far away as 1.5 Mb from the target gene. In other cases, the prior knowledge of the regulatory landscape surrounding the gene of interest aided in the selection of enhancers for mutation screening. The success of these studies should provide a framework for following up on the large number of genome-wide association studies that have identified common variants in non-coding regions of the genome that associate with increased risk of humandiseases including, diabetes, autism, Crohn's, colorectal cancer, and asthma, to name a few.

The complement system has been implicated in obesity, fatty liver, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Complement factors are produced in adipose tissue and appear to be involved in adipose tissue metabolism and local inflammation. Thereby complement links adipose tissue inflammation to systemic metabolic derangements, such as low-grade inflammation, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia. Furthermore, complement has been implicated in pathophysiological mechanisms of diet- and alcohol induced liver damage, hyperglycaemia, endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis and fibrinolysis. In this review, we summarize current evidence on the role of the complement system in several processes of human cardiometabolic disease. C3 is the central component in complement activation, and has most widely been studied in humans. C3 concentrations are associated with insulin resistance, liver dysfunction, risk of the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and CVD. C3 can be activated by the classical, the lectin and the alternative pathway of complement activation; and downstream activation of C3 activates the terminal pathway. Complement may also be activated via extrinsic proteases of the coagulation, fibrinolysis and the kinin systems. Studies on the different complement activation pathways in human cardiometabolic disease are limited, but available evidence suggests that they may have distinct roles in processes underlying cardiometabolic disease. The lectin pathway appeared beneficial in some studies on type 2 diabetes and CVD, while factors of the classical and the alternative pathway were related to unfavourable cardiometabolic traits. The terminal complement pathway was also implicated in insulin resistance and liver disease, and appears to have a prominent role in acute and advanced CVD. The available human data suggest a complex and potentially causal role for the complement system in human cardiometabolic disease. Further, preferably longitudinal studies are needed to

In contrast with other neurodegenerative disorders associated to protein misfolding, human prion diseases include infectious forms (also called transmitted forms) such as kuru, iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The transmissible agent is thought to be solely composed of the abnormal isoform (PrP(Sc)) of the host-encoded prion protein that accumulated in the central nervous system of affected individuals. Compared to its normal counterpart, PrP(Sc) is β-sheet enriched and aggregated and its propagation is based on an autocatalytic conversion process. Increasing evidence supports the view that conformational variations of PrP(Sc) encoded the biological properties of the various prion strains that have been isolated by transmission studies in experimental models. Infectious forms of human prion diseases played a pivotal role in the emergence of the prion concept and in the characterization of the very unconventional properties of prions. They provide a unique model to understand how prion strains are selected and propagate in humans. Here, we review and discuss how genetic factors interplay with strain properties and route of transmission to influence disease susceptibility, incubation period and phenotypic expression in the light of the kuru epidemics due to ritual endocannibalism, the various series iatrogenic diseases secondary to extractive growth hormone treatment or dura mater graft and the epidemics of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease linked to dietary exposure to the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Lyme disease spirochetes (LDS) have phenotypic characteristics of both treponemes and borreliae. To ascertain whether one or more species of LDS exist, as well as their taxonomic status, we determined the DNA base (G + C) content for three strains of LDS, the DNA relatedness of ten strains isolated in the United States or Europe, and the DNA relatedness of LDS to other spirochetes. The G + C content of the three LDS strains was 28.1-29.0 mol%, most similar to those of Borellia hermsii (30.6 mol %) and Treponema hyodysenteriae (25.6 mol %) among the other spirochetes tested. DNA hybridization studies of nine LDS strains to a reference strain isolated from human blood revealed divergence (unpaired bases) within related nucleotide sequences of only 0.0-1.0 percent, indicating the strains were one species. Similarly, relatedness values of seven strains to the reference strain were high: 58-98 percent (mean, 71 percent) in 50 degrees C reactions and 50-93 percent (mean, 69 percent) in 65 degrees C reactions. Labeled DNA from B. hermsii was 30-40 percent related to three Lyme disease spirochete strains in 50 degrees C reactions and 8-10 percent related in 65 degrees C reactions. In contrast, DNA from the reference LDS strain showed relatedness of only 1 percent to DNAs of two leptospires and only 16 percent to DNA from T. hyodysenteriae. We conclude that LDS are a single species, genetically unlike treponemes or leptospires, which belong in the genus Borrelia. PMID:6516455

The recent development of gene editing tools and methodology for use in livestock enables the production of new animal disease models. These tools facilitate site-specific mutation of the genome, allowing animals carrying known humandisease mutations to be produced. In this review, we describe the various gene editing tools and how they can be used for a range of large animal models of diseases. This genomic technology is in its infancy but the expectation is that through the use of gene editing tools we will see a dramatic increase in animal model resources available for both the study of humandisease and the translation of this knowledge into the clinic. Comparative pathology will be central to the productive use of these animal models and the successful translation of new therapeutic strategies.

Abstract Pulmonary function testing is used routinely in human medicine to objectively define functional deficits in individuals with respiratory disease. Despite the fact that respiratory disease is a common problem in veterinary medicine, evaluation of the small animal pa...

To best safeguard human and animal health requires early detection and characterization of disease events. This must include effective surveillance for emerging infectious diseases. Both deliberate and natural outbreaks have enormous economic and public health impacts, and can present serious threats to national security. In this project, we developed novel next generation detection technologies to protect the agricultural economy and biosecurity. The first technology is a multiplexed assay to simultaneously detection 10 swine viral and bacterial pathogens. The second one is the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA) which can detect more than 10,000 microbial species including 4219 viruses, 5367 bacteria, 265 fungi, 117 protozoa and 293 archaea. We analyzed a series of swine clinical samples from past disease events to demonstrate the utility of the assays for faster and cheaper detection of emerging and foreign animal disease pathogens, and their utility as s routine diagnosis and surveillance tool. A second goal of the study is to better understand mechanisms of African swine fever virus (ASFV) infection in pigs to aid the development of countermeasures and diagnostics. There is no vaccine available for ASF. ASF outbreak is on the rise on several European countries. Though ASF is not currently in the U.S., a potential outbreak in the U.S. would be detrimental to the swine industry and the US agricultural economy. We pursued a genome-wide approach to characterize the pig immune responses after ASFV infection. We used RNA sequencing and bioinformatics methods to identify genes and pathways that are affected during ASF infection. We have identified a list of most differentially expressed genes that are in the immune response pathways.

Full Text Available Lagochilascariasis is a parasitic disease caused by a helminth of the order Ascaroidea, genus Lagochilascaris that comprises 6 species, among which only Lagochilascaris minor Leiper, 1909, is implicated in the human form of the disease. It is remarkable that the majority of cases of human lagochilascariasis in the Americas have been reported in Brazil. The natural definitive hosts of this parasite seem to be wild felines and canines. Lagochilascariasis is mostly a chronic humandisease that can persist for several years, in which the parasite burrows into the subcutaneous tissues of the neck, paranasal sinuses, and mastoid. L. minor exhibits remarkable ability to migrate through the tissues of its hosts, destroying even bone tissue. Fatal cases have been described in which the parasite was found in the lungs or central nervous system. Treatment is often palliative, with recurrence of lesions. This paper summarizes the main features of the disease and its etiologic agent, including prevalence, life cycle, clinical course, and treatment.

Heartworm disease due to Dirofilaria immitis continues to cause severe disease and even death in dogs and other animals in many parts of the world, even though safe, highly effective and convenient preventatives have been available for the past two decades. Moreover, the parasite and vector mosquitoes continue to spread into areas where they have not been reported previously. Heartworm societies have been established in the USA and Japan and the First European Dirofilaria Days (FEDD) Conference was held in Zagreb, Croatia, in February of 2007. These organizations promote awareness, encourage research and provide updated guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heartworm disease. The chapter begins with a review of the biology and life cycle of the parasite. It continues with the prevalence and distribution of the disease in domestic and wild animals, with emphasis on more recent data on the spreading of the disease and the use of molecular biology techniques in vector studies. The section on pathogenesis and immunology also includes a discussion of the current knowledge of the potential role of the Wolbachia endosymbiont in inflammatory and immune responses to D. immitis infection, diagnostic use of specific immune responses to the bacteria, immunomodulatory activity and antibiotic treatment of infected animals. Canine, feline and ferret heartworm disease are updated with regard to the clinical presentation, diagnosis, prevention, therapy and management of the disease, with special emphasis on the recently described Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD) Syndrome in cats. The section devoted to heartworm infection in humans also includes notes on other epizootic filariae, particularly D. repens in humans in Europe. The chapter concludes with a discussion on emerging strategies in heartworm treatment and control, highlighting the potential role of tetracycline antibiotics in adulticidal therapy.

Human mitochondrial diseases, defined as the diseases due to a mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation defect, represent a large group of very diverse diseases with respect to phenotype and genetic causes. They present with many unsolved issues, the comprehensive analysis of which is beyond the scope of this review. We here essentially focus on the mechanisms underlying the diversity of targeted tissues, which is an important component of the large panel of these diseases phenotypic expression. The reproducibility of genotype/phenotype expression, the presence of modifying factors, and the potential causes for the restricted pattern of tissular expression are reviewed. Special emphasis is made on heteroplasmy, a specific feature of mitochondrial diseases, defined as the coexistence within the cell of mutant and wild type mitochondrial DNA molecules. Its existence permits unequal segregation during mitoses of the mitochondrial DNA populations and consequently heterogeneous tissue distribution of the mutation load. The observed tissue distributions of recurrent human mitochondrial DNA deleterious mutations are diverse but reproducible for a given mutation demonstrating that the segregation is not a random process. Its extent and mechanisms remain essentially unknown despite recent advances obtained in animal models.

Formins are a conserved family of proteins that play key roles in cytoskeletal remodeling. They nucleate and processively elongate non-branched actin filaments and also modulate microtubule dynamics. Despite their significant contributions to cell biology and development, few studies have directly implicated formins in disease pathogenesis. This review highlights the roles of formins in cell division, migration, immunity, and microvesicle formation in the context of humandisease. In addition, we discuss the importance of controlling formin activity and protein expression to maintain cell homeostasis.

Human papilomaviruses (HPVs) have been detected in cervical cancer cels and skin papiloma cels, which have a variety of types, including low-risk and high-risk types. HPV genome replication requires the host cel’s DNA synthesis machinery, and HPVs encode proteins that maintain diferentiated epithelial cels in a replication-competent state. HPV types are tissue-specific and generaly produce diferent types of le-sions, either benign or malignant. This review examines diferent HPV types and their associated diseases and presents therapeutic options for the treatment of HPV-positive diseases.

With the technology of reprogramming somatic cells by introducing defined transcription factors that enables the generation of "induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)" with pluripotency comparable to that of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), it has become possible to use this technology to produce various cells and tissues that have been difficult to obtain from living bodies. This advancement is bringing forth rapid progress in iPSC-based disease modeling, drug screening, and regenerative medicine. More and more studies have demonstrated that phenotypes of adult-onset neurodegenerative disorders could be rather faithfully recapitulated in iPSC-derived neural cell cultures. Moreover, despite the adult-onset nature of the diseases, pathogenic phenotypes and cellular abnormalities often exist in early developmental stages, providing new "windows of opportunity" for understanding mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders and for discovering new medicines. The cell reprogramming technology enables a reverse engineering approach for modeling the cellular degenerative phenotypes of a wide range of human disorders. An excellent example is the study of the human neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using iPSCs. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative diseasecharacterized by the loss of upper and lower motor neurons (MNs), culminating in muscle wasting and death from respiratory failure. The iPSC approach provides innovative cell culture platforms to serve as ALS patient-derived model systems. Researchers have converted iPSCs derived from ALS patients into MNs and various types of glial cells, all of which are involved in ALS, to study the disease. The iPSC technology could be used to determine the role of specific genetic factors to track down what's wrong in the neurodegenerative disease process in the "disease-in-a-dish" model. Meanwhile, parallel experiments of targeting the same specific genes in human ESCs could also be performed to control

Hantavirus disease is the most common rodent-borne viral infection in the Czech Republic, with a mean annual incidence of 0.02 cases per 100 000 population and specific antibodies detected in 1% of the human population. Four hantaviruses (Puumala, Dobrava-Belgrade, Tula, and Seewis) circulate in this country, of which Puumala virus (responsible for a mild form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome called nephropathia epidemica) and Dobrava-Belgrade virus (causing haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome) have been proven to cause humandisease. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the hantaviruses occurring in the Czech Republic, based on the literature published during the past three decades, including their geographical distribution and clinical symptoms. The recent detection of Tula virus in an immunocompromised person as well as reports of Seoul virus infections in Europe highlight the possible emergence of neglected hantavirus infections in the foreseeable future.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons leading to muscle paralysis. Research in transgenic mice suggests that the muscle actively contributes to the disease onset, but such studies are difficult to pursue in humans and in vitro models would represent a good starting point. In this work we show that tiny amounts of muscle from ALS or from control denervated muscle, obtained by needle biopsy, are amenable to functional characterization by two different technical approaches: “microtransplantation” of muscle membranes into Xenopus oocytes and culture of myogenic satellite cells. Acetylcholine (ACh)-evoked currents and unitary events were characterized in oocytes and multinucleated myotubes. We found that ALS acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) retain their native physiological characteristics, being activated by ACh and nicotine and blocked by α-bungarotoxin (α-BuTX), d-tubocurarine (dTC), and galantamine. The reversal potential of ACh-evoked currents and the unitary channel behavior were also typical of normal muscle AChRs. Interestingly, in oocytes injected with muscle membranes derived from ALS patients, the AChRs showed a significant decrease in ACh affinity, compared with denervated controls. Finally, riluzole, the only drug currently used against ALS, reduced, in a dose-dependent manner, the ACh-evoked currents, indicating that its action remains to be fully characterized. The two methods described here will be important tools for elucidating the role of muscle in ALS pathogenesis and for developing drugs to counter the effects of this disease. PMID:22128328

Full Text Available Adipose tissue is not merely a storage depot of triacylglycerols but also a major endocrine organ. Its cells, including adipocytes, synthesize and secrete a range of biologically active molecules termed adipokines. Adipokines that display the properties of cytokines are often called adipocytokines. In recent years there has been increasing interest in a new adipokine called chemerin. Chemerin is a protein synthesized mostly by the adipose tissue and the liver as inactive pre-pro-chemerin. After the intracellular hydrolytic cutting off of the 20-amino-acid N-terminal polypeptide, it is secreted into the bloodstream as inactive pro-chemerin. Biologically active chemerin is then derived from pro-chemerin after cleavage of the C-terminal fragment by serum proteases involved in inflammation, coagulation and fibrinolysis. Proteolytic cleavage leads to formation of several chemerin-derived peptides, both biologically active (often with opposing functions and inactive.Within the last decade, there has been a growing number of publications regarding the role of chemerin in humandisease. It seems to be implicated in the inflammatory response, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and alimentary tract disorders. The article presents the most recent information on the role of chemerin in humandisease, and specifically alimentary tract disorders. The available evidence suggests that chemerin is an important link between adipose tissue mass, metabolic processes, the immune system and inflammation, and therefore plays a major role in human pathophysiology.

Since many bacterial genes are environmentally regulated, the screening for virulence-associated factors using classical genetic and molecular biology approaches can be biased under laboratory growth conditions of a given pathogen, because the required conditions for expression of many virulence factors may not occur during in vitro growth. Thus, technologies have been developed during the past several years to identify genes that are expressed during disease using animal models of humandisease. However, animal models are not always truly representative of humandisease, and with many pathogens, there is no appropriate animal model. A new technology, in vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) was thus engineered and tested in our laboratory to screen for genes of pathogenic organisms induced specifically in humans, without the use of animal or artificial models of infection. This technology uses pooled sera from patients to probe for genes expressed exclusively in vivo (or ivi, in vivo-induced genes). IVIAT was originally designed for the study of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans pathogenesis, but we have now extended it to other oral pathogens including Porphyromonas gingivalis. One hundred seventy-one thousand (171,000) clones from P. gingivalis strain W83 were screened and 144 were confirmed positive. Over 300,000 A. actinomycetemcomitans clones were probed, and 116 were confirmed positive using a quantitative blot assay. MAT has proven useful in identifying previously unknown in vivo-induced genes that are likely involved in virulence and are thus excellent candidates for use in diagnostic : and therapeutic strategies, including vaccine design.

One major hurdle to the development of effective treatments to many diseases is the lack of suitable human model systems. The ability to reprogram human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) offers an excellent opportunity to generate humandisease models with primary cells. Currently, several methods to generate iPSC lines exist, and iPSC can be generated from various tissue sources including skin fibroblasts, blood, hair follicles, dental tissue, and urine. In this chapter we describe the generation and characterization of iPSC from blood or fibroblast on a routine base and focus on the integration-free methodologies.

Full Text Available Nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD-like receptors (NLRs are highly conserved cytosolic pattern recognition receptors that perform critical functions in surveying the intracellular environment for the presence of infection, noxious substances, and metabolic perturbations. Sensing of these danger signals by NLRs leads to their oligomerization into large macromolecular scaffolds and the rapid deployment of effector signaling cascades to restore homeostasis. While some NLRs operate by recruiting and activating inflammatory caspases into inflammasomes, others trigger inflammation via alternative routes including the NF-κB, MAPK and IRF pathways. The critical role of NLRs in development and physiology is demonstrated by their clear implications in humandiseases. Mutations in the genes encoding NLRP3 or NLRP12 lead to hereditary periodic fever syndromes, while mutations in CARD15 that encodes NOD2 are linked to Crohn’s disease or Blau’s syndrome. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS have identified a number of risk alleles encompassing NLR genes in a host of diseases including allergic rhinitis, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, multi-bacillary leprosy, vitiligo, early-onset menopause, and bone density loss in elderly women. Animal models have allowed the characterization of underlying effector mechanisms in a number of cases. In this review, we highlight the functions of NLRs in health and disease and discuss how the characterization of their molecular mechanisms provides new insights into therapeutic strategies for the management of inflammatory pathologies.

Defects of the mitochondrial protein synthesis cause a subgroup of mitochondrial diseases, which are usually associated with decreased activities of multiple respiratory chain (RC) enzymes. The clinical presentations of these disorders are often disabling, progressive or fatal, affecting the brain, liver, skeletal muscle, heart and other organs. Currently there are no effective cures for these disorders and treatment is at best symptomatic. The diagnosis in patients with multiple respiratory chain complex defects is particularly difficult because of the massive number of nuclear genes potentially involved in intra-mitochondrial protein synthesis. Many of these genes are not yet linked to humandisease. Whole exome sequencing rapidly changed the diagnosis of these patients by identifying the primary defect in DNA, and preventing the need for invasive and complex biochemical testing. Better understanding of the mitochondrial protein synthesis apparatus will help us to explore disease mechanisms and will provide clues for developing novel therapies.

The human gut microbiome can now be characterized in unprecedented detail by an approach based on high-throughput sequencing of total stool DNA, that we name quantitative metagenomics. Central to the approach is a catalog that lists all the genes of intestinal microbes that are known - 9.9 millions, identified by the analysis of 1267 stool samples. Beyond the gene list, genetic units that carry them begun to be known; many of these correspond to bacterial species that were never isolated and cultured yet. Quantitative metagenomics allows developing powerful algorithms to diagnose a disease, monitor patients and identify individuals at risk to progress towards a disease. This lays ground for developing new approaches to better restore and even preserve the health by modulation of the altered microbiome, which contributes to promote or aggravate a disease.

Full Text Available After decades of Alzheimer's disease (AD research, the development of a definitive diagnostic test for this disease has remained elusive. The discovery of blood-borne biomarkers yielding an accurate and relatively non-invasive test has been a primary goal. Using human protein microarrays to characterize the differential expression of serum autoantibodies in AD and non-demented control (NDC groups, we identified potential diagnostic biomarkers for AD. The differential significance of each biomarker was evaluated, resulting in the selection of only 10 autoantibody biomarkers that can effectively differentiate AD sera from NDC sera with a sensitivity of 96.0% and specificity of 92.5%. AD sera were also distinguishable from sera obtained from patients with Parkinson's disease and breast cancer with accuracies of 86% and 92%, respectively. Results demonstrate that serum autoantibodies can be used effectively as highly-specific and accurate biomarkers to diagnose AD throughout the course of the disease.

Sixteen cats with allergic dermatitis and six control cats with no skin disease were examined. Lymphoid and histiocytic cells in skin sections were examined immunohistochemically and mast cells were identified by toluidine blue staining. The 16 allergic cats showed one or more of several features (alopecia, eosinophilic plaques or granulomas, papulocrusting lesions), and histopathological findings were diverse. In control cats there were no cells that expressed IgM or MAC387, a few that were immunolabelled for IgG, IgA or CD3, and moderate numbers of mast cells. In allergic cats, positively labelled inflammatory cells were generally more numerous in lesional than in non-lesional skin sections, and were particularly associated with the superficial dermis and perifollicular areas. There were low numbers of plasma cells expressing cytoplasmic immunoglobulin; moderate numbers of MHC II-, MAC387- and CD3-positive cells; and moderate to numerous mast cells. MHC class II expression was associated with inflammatory cells morphologically consistent with dermal dendritic cells and macrophages, and epidermal Langerhans cells. Dendritic cells expressing MHC class II were usually associated with an infiltrate of CD3 lymphocytes, suggesting that these cells participate in maintenance of the local immune response by presenting antigen to T lymphocytes. These findings confirm that feline allergic skin disease is characterized by infiltration of activated antigen-presenting cells and T lymphocytes in addition to increased numbers of dermal mast cells. This pattern mimics the dermal inflammation that occurs in the chronic phase of both canine and human atopic dermatitis.

Analyses of the cells present in human colostrum obtained from fifty-four healthy donors during the first four days of lactation revealed that there were 3.3 x 10(6) (range 1.1 x 10(5)--1.2 x 10(7)) cells per ml of colostrum. Based on histochemical examinations, it was found that this population consisted of 30--47% macrophages, 40--60% polymorphonuclear leucocytes, 5.2--8.9% lymphocytes, and 1.3--2.8% colostral corpuscles; epithelial cells were rarely encountered. The identity of various cell types was confirmed by Wright's stain and by a series of histochemical techniques which disclosed the presence of non-specific esterase, peroxidase, and lipids. For further characterization, the different types of cells were separated by various methods, such as Ficoll-Hypaque density centrifugation, isokinetic centrifugation on a linear Ficoll gradient, adherence to glass or plastic, and phagocytosis of carbonyl iron. Immunohistochemical staining with FITC- and/or TRITC-labelled reagents to IgA, IgM, IgG, K- and lambda-chains, secretory component, lactoferrin, and alpha-lactalbumin were applied to unseparated as well as separated colostral cells. Polymorphonuclear leucocytes (staining for peroxidase) as well as macrophages and colostral corpuscles (staining for non-specific esterase) exhibited numerous intracellular vesicles that contained lipids as well as various combinations of milk proteins. Lymphoid cells did not stain with any of these reagents and plasma cells were not detected among the colostral cells. Individual phagocytic cells contained immunoglobulins of the IgA and IgM classes, both K and lambda light chains, secretory component, lactoferrin, and alpha-lactalbumin. The coincidental appearance of these proteins in single, phagocytic cells but not in lymphoid cells indicate that the cells acquired these proteins by ingestion from the environment. Markers commonly used for the identification of B lymphocytes (surface immunoglobulins) and T lymphocytes (receptors

Following the “finished,” euchromatic, haploid human reference genome sequence, the rapid development of novel, faster, and cheaper sequencing technologies is making possible the era of personalized human genomics. Personal diploid human genome sequences have been generated, and each has contributed to our better understanding of variation in the human genome. We have consequently begun to appreciate the vastness of individual genetic variation from single nucleotide to structural variants. Translation of genome-scale variation into medically useful information is, however, in its infancy. This review summarizes the initial steps undertaken in clinical implementation of personal genome information, and describes the application of whole-genome and exome sequencing to identify the cause of genetic diseases and to suggest adjuvant therapies. Better analysis tools and a deeper understanding of the biology of our genome are necessary in order to decipher, interpret, and optimize clinical utility of what the variation in the human genome can teach us. Personal genome sequencing may eventually become an instrument of common medical practice, providing information that assists in the formulation of a differential diagnosis. We outline herein some of the remaining challenges. PMID:22248320

interest on these cells, mainly focused on animal models. Only recently, a few studies have started to address the relevance of the mRGC system in humans and related diseases. We recently discovered that mRGCs resist neurodegeneration in two inherited mitochondrial disorders that cause blindness, i.......e. Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and dominant optic atrophy. The mechanism leading to mRGCs sparing in these blinding disorders, characterized by extensive and selective loss of RGCs, is currently unknown and under investigation. Other studies reported on mRGCs in glaucoma, on genetic variation...

Cell loss contributes to the pathogenesis of many inherited and acquired humandiseases. We have developed a system to conditionally ablate cells of any lineage and developmental stage in the mouse by regulated expression of the diphtheria toxin A (DTA) gene by using tetracycline-responsive promoters. As an example of this approach, we targeted expression of DTA to the hearts of adult mice to model structural abnormalities commonly observed in human cardiomyopathies. Induction of DTA expression resulted in cell loss, fibrosis, and chamber dilatation. As in many human cardiomyopathies, transgenic mice developed spontaneous arrhythmias in vivo, and programmed electrical stimulation of isolated-perfused transgenic hearts demonstrated a strikingly high incidence of spontaneous and inducible ventricular tachycardia. Affected mice showed marked perturbations of cardiac gap junction channel expression and localization, including a subset with disorganized epicardial activation patterns as revealed by optical action potential mapping. These studies provide important insights into mechanisms of arrhythmogenesis and suggest that conditional lineage ablation may have wide applicability for studies of disease pathogenesis.

Uniparental disomy (UPD) refers to the situation in which both homologues of a chromosomal region/segment have originated from only one parent. This can involve the entire chromosome or only a small segment. As a consequence of UPD, or uniparental duplication/deficiency of part of a chromosome, there are two types of developmental risk: aberrant dosage of genes regulated by genomic imprinting and homozygosity of a recessive mutation. UPD models generated by reciprocal and Robertsonian translocation heterozygote intercrosses have been a powerful tool to investigate genomic imprinting in mice, whereas novel UPD patients such as those with cystic fibrosis and Prader-Willi syndrome, triggered the clarification of recessive diseases and genomic imprinting disorders in human. Newly developed genomic technologies as well as conventional microsatellite marker methods have been contributing to the functional and mechanistic investigation of UPD, leading to not only the acquisition of clinically valuable information, but also the further clarification of diverse genetic processes and disease pathogenesis.

We report the existence in the human placenta of a phosphatidylcholine- hydrolyzing phospholipase D (PLD) activity, which has been characterized and partially purified. Triton X-100 effectively solubilized PLD from the particulate fraction of human placenta in a dose-dependent manner. However....... The present results form the basis for further purification of a PLD from human tissue....

Full Text Available Mitochondria are highly dynamic, complex organelles that continuously alter their shape, ranging between two opposite processes, fission and fusion, in response to several stimuli and the metabolic demands of the cell. Alterations in mitochondrial dynamics due to mutations in proteins involved in the fusion-fission machinery represent an important pathogenic mechanism of humandiseases. The most relevant proteins involved in the mitochondrial fusion process are three GTPase dynamin-like proteins: mitofusin 1 (MFN1 and 2 (MFN2, located in the outer mitochondrial membrane, and optic atrophy protein 1 (OPA1, in the inner membrane. An expanding number of degenerative disorders are associated with mutations in the genes encoding MFN2 and OPA1, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2A and autosomal dominant optic atrophy. While these disorders can still be considered rare, defective mitochondrial dynamics seem to play a significant role in the molecular and cellular pathogenesis of more common neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. This review provides an overview of the basic molecular mechanisms involved in mitochondrial fusion and focuses on the alteration in mitochondrial DNA amount resulting from impairment of mitochondrial dynamics. We also review the literature describing the main disorders associated with the disruption of mitochondrial fusion.

In the early 1980s, neurologist Stanley Prusiner suggested that scrapie, an apparently infectious degenerative brain disease of sheep, could be transmitted by prions, infectious particles made just of protein - and containing no nucleic acids. But prion research has come a long way since then. In 1985, the cloning of the gene encoding the prion protein proved that it does in fact exist. And the gene turned out to be widely expressed in the brains of higher organisms, a result suggesting that the prion protein has a normal brain function that can somehow be subverted, leading to brain degeneration. Then studies done during the past 2 years suggested that specific mutations in the prion gene might cause two similar human brain diseases, Gerstmann-Straeussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS) and Creutzfelt-Jakob disease. Now, Prusiner's group at the University of California, San Francisco, has used genetic engineering techniques to recreate GSS by transplanting the mutated prion gene into mice. Not only will the animal model help neurobiologists answer the many remaining questions about prions and how they work, but it may also shed some light on other neurodegenerative diseases as well.

Our understanding of mammalian-microbial mutualism has expanded by combing microbial sequencing with evolving molecular and cellular methods, and unique model systems. Here, the recent literature linking the microbiota to diseases of three of the key mammalian mucosal epithelial compartments – nasal, lung and gastrointestinal (GI) tract – is reviewed with a focus on new knowledge about the taxa, species, proteins and chemistry that promote health and impact progression toward disease. The information presented is further organized by specific diseases now associated with the microbiota:, Staphylococcus aureus infection and rhinosinusitis in the nasal-sinus mucosa; cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and asthma in the pulmonary tissues. For the vast and microbially dynamic GI compartment, several disorders are considered, including obesity, atherosclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, drug toxicity, and even autism. Our appreciation of the chemical symbiosis ongoing between human systems and the microbiota continues to grow, and suggest new opportunities for modulating this symbiosis using designed interventions. PMID:25305474

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Prion diseases are a family of rare, progressive, neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and animals. The most common form of human prion disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD, occurs worldwide. Variant CJD (vCJD, a recently emerged human prion disease, is a zoonotic foodborne disorder that occurs almost exclusively in countries with outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. This study describes the occurrence and epidemiology of CJD and vCJD in the United States. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Analysis of CJD and vCJD deaths using death certificates of US residents for 1979-2006, and those identified through other surveillance mechanisms during 1996-2008. Since CJD is invariably fatal and illness duration is usually less than one year, the CJD incidence is estimated as the death rate. During 1979 through 2006, an estimated 6,917 deaths with CJD as a cause of death were reported in the United States, an annual average of approximately 247 deaths (range 172-304 deaths. The average annual age-adjusted incidence for CJD was 0.97 per 1,000,000 persons. Most (61.8% of the CJD deaths occurred among persons >or=65 years of age for an average annual incidence of 4.8 per 1,000,000 persons in this population. Most deaths were among whites (94.6%; the age-adjusted incidence for whites was 2.7 times higher than that for blacks (1.04 and 0.40, respectively. Three patients who died since 2004 were reported with vCJD; epidemiologic evidence indicated that their infection was acquired outside of the United States. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Surveillance continues to show an annual CJD incidence rate of about 1 case per 1,000,000 persons and marked differences in CJD rates by age and race in the United States. Ongoing surveillance remains important for monitoring the stability of the CJD incidence rates, and detecting occurrences of vCJD and possibly other novel prion diseases in the United States.

The chromosome break points of the t(8;21)(q21.3;q22.12) translocation associated with acute myeloid leukemia disrupt the RUNX1 gene (also known as AML1) and the RUNX1T1 gene (also known as CBFA2T3, MTG8 and ETO) and generate a RUNX1-RUNX1T1 fusion protein. Molecular characterization of the trans...... development and support the notion that disruption of the RUNX1T1 gene is associated with the patient's phenotype.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 28 January 2009; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2008.269....

The field of human T regulatory (Treg) cells is a rapidly progressing, but still confused field of immunology. The effects of dendritic cell (DC) manipulation in Treg generation and the main features of human "natural" Treg cells, as well as of different populations of adaptive Treg subsets, are still partially unclear. However, it is clear that Treg cells play an important role in humandiseases, such as autoimmune disorders, allergy, HIV infection, tumors and graft-versus-host disease.

The completion of the human genome sequence enables the discovery of genes involved in common human disorders. The successful identification of these genes is dependent on the availability of informative sample sets, validated marker panels, a high-throughput scoring technology, and a strategy for combining these resources. We have developed a universal platform technology based on mass spectrometry (MassARRAY) for analyzing nucleic acids with high precision and accuracy. To fuel this technology, we generated more than 100,000 validated assays for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering virtually all known and predicted human genes. We also established a large DNA sample bank comprised of more than 50,000 consented healthy and diseased individuals. This combination of reagents and technology allows the execution of large-scale genome-wide association studies. Taking advantage of MassARRAY"s capability for quantitative analysis of nucleic acids, allele frequencies are estimated in sample pools containing large numbers of individual DNAs. To compare pools as a first-pass "filtering" step is a tremendous advantage in throughput and cost over individual genotyping. We employed this approach in numerous genome-wide, hypothesis-free searches to identify genes associated with common complex diseases, such as breast cancer, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis, and genes involved in quantitative traits like high density lipoproteins cholesterol (HDL-c) levels and central fat. Access to additional well-characterized patient samples through collaborations allows us to conduct replication studies that validate true disease genes. These discoveries will expand our understanding of genetic disease predisposition, and our ability for early diagnosis and determination of specific disease subtype or progression stage.

With the availability of large-scale data, it is now possible to systematically study the underlying interaction maps of many complex systems in multiple disciplines. Statistical physics has a long and successful history in modeling and characterizing systems with a large number of interacting individuals. Indeed, numerous approaches that were first developed in the context of statistical physics, such as the notion of random walks and diffusion processes, have been applied successfully to study and characterize complex systems in the context of network science. Based on these tools, network science has made important contributions to our understanding of many real-world, self-organizing systems, for example in computer science, sociology and economics. Biological systems are no exception. Indeed, recent studies reflect the necessity of applying statistical and network-based approaches in order to understand complex biological systems, such as cells. In these approaches, a cell is viewed as a complex network consisting of interactions among cellular components, such as genes and proteins. Given the cellular network as a platform, machinery, functionality and failure of a cell can be studied with network-based approaches, a field known as systems biology. Here, we apply network-based approaches to explore humandiseases and their associated genes within the cellular network. This dissertation is divided in three parts: (i) A systematic analysis of the connectivity patterns among disease proteins within the cellular network. The quantification of these patterns inspires the design of an algorithm which predicts a disease-specific subnetwork containing yet unknown disease associated proteins. (ii) We apply the introduced algorithm to explore the common underlying mechanism of many complex diseases. We detect a subnetwork from which inflammatory processes initiate and result in many autoimmune diseases. (iii) The last chapter of this dissertation describes the

Highly purified fractions of human chromosomes 21 and 22 were isolated from a suspension of metaphase chromosomes stained with ethidium bromide by using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS II). Two recombinant DNA libraries, representing chromosomes 21 and 22, were constructed by complete digestion of DNA from these fractions with EcoRI and insertion into the vector lambda gtWES lambda B. Twenty clones selected at random from the chromosome 22 library hybridized to EcoRI-digested human DNA, and five of these clones hybridized to single bands identical in size to the phage inserts. These five single-copy sequences and a clone coding for an 8S RNA isolated by screening the chromosome 22 library for expressed sequences were characterized in detail. Hybridization of all six clones to a panel of sorted chromosomes and hybrid cell lines confirmed the assignment of the sequences to chromosome 22. The sequences were localized to regions of chromosome 22 by hybridization to translocated chromosomes sorted from a cell line having a balanced translocation t(17;22)(p13;q11) and to hybrid cell lines containing the various portions of another translocation t(X;22)(q13;q112). Five clones reside on the long arm of chromosome 22 between q112 and pter, while one clone and an 18S rRNA gene isolated from the chromosome 22 library reside pter and g112. The construction of chromosome-specific libraries by this method has the advantage of being direct and applicable to nearly all human chromosomes and will be important in molecular analysis of human genetic diseases.

Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes systemic T cell destruction and reduced cell-mediated immunity that leads to a wide range of opportunistic infections and cancers. Second, it directly damages many tissues - gut, brain, lung - through mononuclear cell infection and activation. Third, through immune activation and effects on endothelia, it can cause more subtle systemic organ damage, such as chronic cardiovascular, hepatic, pulmonary and central nervous system disease. Antiretroviral treatment has enabled HIV-infected persons to live with chronic infection, although with some side-effects and mortality, including reactions due to the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). As cohorts of infected people get older, age-related diseases will combine with chronic HIV infection to produce disabilities whose scale is not yet understood. HIV is detectable in tissues by immunohistochemistry when infection loads are high, such as at first presentation. Pathologists should proactively consider HIV disease in routine diagnostic work, so as to identify more HIV-infected patients and enable their optimal management.

Associations between blood type and disease have been studied since the early 1900s when researchers determined that antibodies and antigens are inherited. In the 1950s, the chemical identification of the carbohydrate structure of surface antigens led to the understanding of biosynthetic pathways. The blood type is defined by oligosaccharide structures, which are specific to the antigens, thus, blood group antigens are secondary gene products, while the primary gene products are various glycosyltransferase enzymes that attach the sugar molecules to the oligosaccharide chain. Blood group antigens are found on red blood cells, platelets, leukocytes, plasma proteins, certain tissues, and various cell surface enzymes, and also exist in soluble form in body secretions such as breast milk, seminal fluid, saliva, sweat, gastric secretions, urine, and amniotic fluid. Recent advances in technology, biochemistry, and genetics have clarified the functional classifications of human blood group antigens, the structure of the A, B, H, and Lewis determinants and the enzymes that produce them, and the association of blood group antigens with disease risks. Further research to identify differences in the biochemical composition of blood group antigens, and the relationship to risks for disease, can be important for the identification of targets for the development of nutritional intervention strategies, or the identification of druggable targets. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2016, 8:517-535. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1355 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Full Text Available Abstract In a simplified view, members of the HECT E3 family have a modular structure consisting of the C-terminal HECT domain, which is catalytically involved in the attachment of ubiquitin to substrate proteins, and N-terminal extensions of variable length and sequence that mediate the substrate specificity of the respective HECT E3. Although the physiologically relevant substrates of most HECT E3s have remained elusive, it is becoming increasingly clear that HECT E3s play an important role in sporadic and hereditary humandiseases including cancer, cardiovascular (Liddle's syndrome and neurological (Angelman syndrome disorders, and/or in disease-relevant processes including bone homeostasis, immune response and retroviral budding. Thus, molecular approaches to target the activity of distinct HECT E3s, regulators thereof, and/or of HECT E3 substrates could prove valuable in the treatment of the respective diseases. Publication history: Republished from Current BioData's Targeted Proteins database (TPdb; http://www.targetedproteinsdb.com.

There are several hypotheses which explain the de-pigmentation of humans. The most prominent environmental explanation is that reduced endogenous vitamin D production due to diminished radiation at higher latitudes had a deleterious impact on fitness. This drove de-pigmentation as an adaptive response. A model of natural selection explains the high correlations found between low vitamin D levels and ill health, as vitamin D's role in immune response has clear evolutionary implications. But recent genomic techniques have highlighted the likelihood that extreme de-pigmentation in Eurasia is a feature of the last 10,000years, not the Upper Pleistocene, when modern humans first settled northern Eurasia. Additionally the data imply two independent selection events in eastern and western Eurasia. Therefore new parameters must be added to the model of natural selection so as to explain the relatively recent and parallel adaptive responses. I propose a model of gene-culture co-evolution whereby the spread of agriculture both reduced dietary vitamin D sources and led to more powerful selection on immune response because of the rise of infectious diseases with greater population densities. This model explains the persistence of relatively dark-skinned peoples at relatively high latitudes and the existence of relatively light-skinned populations at low latitudes. It also reinforces the importance of vitamin D as a micronutrient because of the evidence of extremely powerful fitness implications in the recent human past of pigmentation. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

...). Subjective pronuclear (PN) zygote scoring systems have been developed for that purpose. The aim of this work was to provide a software tool that enables objective measuring of morphological characteristics of the human PN zygote...

The extent to which evolutionary changes have impacted the phenotypic relationships among humandiseases remains unclear. In this work, we report that phenotypically similar diseases are connected by the evolutionary constraints on humandisease genes. Humandisease groups can be classified into slowly or rapidly evolving classes, where the diseases in the slowly evolving class are enriched with morphological phenotypes and those in the rapidly evolving class are enriched with physiological phenotypes. Our findings establish a clear evolutionary connection between disease classes and disease phenotypes for the first time. Furthermore, the high comorbidity found between diseases connected by similar evolutionary constraints enables us to improve the predictability of the relative risk of humandiseases. We find the evolutionary constraints on disease genes are a new layer of molecular connection in the network-based exploration of humandiseases.

Full Text Available In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites. To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P. in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P. in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.. Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to compare the coprolite data to published data from known sources that include, soil, compost, human gut from rural African children, human gut, oral and skin from US cosmopolitan adults and non-human primate gut. The data from the Hinds Cave samples largely represented unknown sources. The Caserones samples, retrieved directly from natural mummies, matched compost in high proportion. A substantial and robust proportion of Rio Zape data was predicted to match the gut microbiome found in traditional rural communities, with more minor matches to other sources. One of the Rio Zape samples had taxonomic representation consistent with a child. To provide an idealized scenario for sample preservation, we also applied source tracking to previously published data for Ötzi the Iceman and a soldier frozen for 93 years on a glacier. Overall these studies reveal that human microbiome data has been preserved in some coprolites, and these preserved human microbiomes match more closely to those from the rural communities than to those from cosmopolitan communities. These results suggest that the modern cosmopolitan lifestyle resulted in a dramatic change to the human gut microbiome.

Progeroid syndromes have been the focus of intense research in part because they might provide a window into the pathology of normal ageing. Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome are two of the best characterizedhuman progeroid diseases. Mutated genes that are associated with these syndromes have been identified, mouse models of disease have been developed, and molecular studies have implicated decreased cell proliferation and altered DNA-damage responses as common causal mechanisms in the pathogenesis of both diseases.

Inflammatory bowel disease has been associated with differential abundance of numerous organisms when compared to healthy controls (HCs); however, few studies have investigated variability in the microbiome across intestinal locations and how this variability might be related to disease location and phenotype. In this study, we have analyzed the microbiome of a large cohort of individuals recruited at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Biopsies were taken from subjects with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and HC, and also individuals having undergone ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for treatment of ulcerative colitis or familial adenomatous polyposis. Microbial 16S rRNA was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. We observed a great deal of variability in the microbiome characterizing different sampling locations. Samples from pouch and afferent limb were comparable in microbial composition. When comparing sigmoid and terminal ileum samples, more differences were observed. The greatest number of differentially abundant microbes was observed when comparing either pouch or afferent limb samples to sigmoid or terminal ileum. Despite these differences, we were able to observe modest microbial variability between inflammatory bowel disease phenotypes and HCs, even when controlling for sampling location and additional experimental factors. Most detected associations were observed between HCs and Crohn's disease, with decreases in specific genera in the families Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae characterizing tissue samples from individuals with Crohn's disease. This study highlights important considerations when analyzing the composition of the microbiome and also provides useful insight into differences in the microbiome characterizing these seemingly related phenotypes.

Tremendous progress has been made in the control and prevention of human parasitic diseases in mainland China in the past 30 years because of China's Reform and Opening to the Outside Policies initiated in 1978. However, parasitic diseases remain a major human health problem, with significant morbidity and mortality as well as adverse socioeconomic consequences. Although soil-transmitted parasitic diseases are in the process of being gradually controlled, food-borne parasitic diseases and emerging parasitic diseases are becoming the focus of new campaigns for control and prevention. This article reviews major trends in human parasitic diseases in mainland China, with perspectives for control.

Neuroimaging has played an important role in non-invasive diagnosis and differentiation of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Various features have been extracted from the neuroimaging data to characterize the disorders, and these features can be roughly divided into global and local features. Recent studies show a tendency of using local features in diseasecharacterization, since they are capable of identifying the subtle disease-specific patterns associated with the effects of the disease on human brain. However, problems arise if the neuroimaging database involved multiple disorders or progressive disorders, as disorders of different types or at different progressive stages might exhibit different degenerative patterns. It is difficult for the researchers to reach consensus on what brain regions could effectively distinguish multiple disorders or multiple progression stages. In this study we proposed a Multi-Channel pattern analysis approach to identify the most discriminative local brain metabolism features for neurodegenerative disorder characterization. We compared our method to global methods and other pattern analysis methods based on clinical expertise or statistics tests. The preliminary results suggested that the proposed Multi-Channel pattern analysis method outperformed other approaches in Alzheimer's diseasecharacterization, and meanwhile provided important insights into the underlying pathology of Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Human lactoferrin (hLF) is an iron-binding glycoprotein of Mr 77,000 that belongs to the transferrin family. Based on extensive research showing antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities of hLF, the molecule is postulated to be involved in the innate host defence against infec

Full Text Available Abstract Background Human angiostrongyliasis is an emerging food-borne public health problem, with the number of cases increasing worldwide, especially in mainland China. Angiostrongylus cantonensis is the causative agent of this severe disease. However, little is known about the genetics and basic biology of A. cantonensis. Results A cDNA library of A. cantonensis fourth-stage larvae was constructed, and ~1,200 clones were sequenced. Bioinformatic analyses revealed 378 cDNA clusters, 54.2% of which matched known genes at a cutoff expectation value of 10-20. Of these 378 unique cDNAs, 168 contained open reading frames encoding proteins containing an average of 238 amino acids. Characterization of the functions of these encoded proteins by Gene Ontology analysis showed enrichment in proteins with binding and catalytic activity. The observed pattern of enzymes involved in protein metabolism, lipid metabolism and glycolysis may reflect the central nervous system habitat of this pathogen. Four proteins were tested for their immunogenicity using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and histopathological examinations. The specificity of each of the four proteins was superior to that of crude somatic and excretory/secretory antigens of larvae, although their sensitivity was relatively low. We further showed that mice immunized with recombinant cystatin, a product of one of the four cDNA candidate genes, were partially protected from A. cantonensis infection. Conclusion The data presented here substantially expand the available genetic information about the human pathogen A. cantonensis, and should be a significant resource for angiostrongyliasis researchers. As such, this work serves as a starting point for molecular approaches for diagnosing and controlling human angiostrongyliasis.

Monitor characterization has taken on new importance for non-professional users, who are not usually equipped to make photometric measurements. Our purpose was to examine some of the visual judgements used in characterization schemes that have been proposed for web users. We studied adjusting brightness to set the black level, banding effects du to digitization, and gamma estimation in the light an din the dark, and a color-matching tasks in the light, on a desktop CRT and a laptop LCD. Observers demonstrated the sensitivity of the visual system for comparative judgements in black- level adjustment, banding visibility, and gamma estimation. The results of the color-matching task were ambiguous. In the brightness adjustment task, the action of the adjustment was not as presumed; however, perceptual judgements were as expected under the actual conditions. Whenthe gamma estimates of observers were compared to photometric measurements, pro9blems with the definition of gamma were identified. Information about absolute light levels that would be important for characterizing a display, given the shortcomings of gamma in measuring apparent contrast, are not measurable by eye alone. The LCD was not studied as extensively as the CRT because of viewing-angle problems, and its transfer function did not follow a power law, rendering gamma estimation meaningless.

Most human filarial nematode parasites and arthropods are hosts for a bacterial endosymbiont, Wolbachia. In filaria, Wolbachia are required for normal development, fertility and survival, whereas in arthropods, they are largely parasitic and can influence development and reproduction, but are generally not required for host survival. Due to their obligate nature in filarial parasites, Wolbachia have been a target for drug discovery initiatives using several approaches including diversity and focused library screening and genomic sequence analysis. In vitro and in vivo anti-Wolbachia antibiotic treatments have been shown to have adulticidal activity, a long sought goal of filarial parasite drug discovery. In mosquitoes, it has been shown that the presence of Wolbachia can inhibit the transmission of certain viruses, such as Dengue, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever, West Nile, as well as the infectivity of the malaria-causing protozoan, Plasmodium and filarial nematodes. Furthermore, Wolbachia can cause a form of conditional sterility that can be used to suppress populations of mosquitoes and additional medically important insects. Thus Wolbachia, a pandemic endosymbiont offers great potential for elimination of a wide-variety of devastating humandiseases.

A major challenge for understanding susceptibility to common humandiseases is determining genetic and environmental factors that influence mechanisms underlying variation in disease-related traits. The most common diseases afflicting the US population are complex diseases that develop as a result of defects in multiple genetically controlled systems in response to environmental challenges. Unraveling the etiology of these diseases is exceedingly difficult because of the many genetic and environmental factors involved. Studies of complex disease genetics in humans are challenging because it is not possible to control pedigree structure and often not practical to control environmental conditions over an extended period of time. Furthermore, access to tissues relevant to many diseases from healthy individuals is quite limited. The baboon is a well-established research model for the study of a wide array of common complex diseases, including dyslipidemia, hypertension, obesity, and osteoporosis. It is possible to acquire tissues from healthy, genetically characterized baboons that have been exposed to defined environmental stimuli. In this review, we describe the genetic and physiologic similarity of baboons with humans, the ability and usefulness of controlling environment and breeding, and current genetic and genomic resources. We discuss studies on genetics of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and intrauterine growth restriction using the baboon as a model for humandisease. We also summarize new studies and resources under development, providing examples of potential translational studies for targeted interventions and therapies for humandisease.

We prepared and characterized golimumab (CNTO148), a human IgG1 tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) antagonist monoclonal antibody chosen for clinical development based on its molecular properties. Golimumab was compared with infliximab, adalimumab and etanercept for affinity and in vitro TNFα neutralization. The affinity of golimumab for soluble human TNFα, as determined by surface plasmon resonance, was similar to that of etanercept (18 pM versus 11 pM), greater than that of infliximab (44 pM) and significantly greater than that of adalimumab (127 pM, p=0.018). The concentration of golimumab necessary to neutralize TNFα-induced E-selectin expression on human endothelial cells by 50% was significantly less than those for infliximab (3.2 fold; p=0.017) and adalimumab (3.3-fold; p=0.008) and comparable to that for etanercept. The conformational stability of golimumab was greater than that of infliximab (primary melting temperature [Tm] 74.8 °C vs. 69.5 °C) as assessed by differential scanning calorimetry. In addition, golimumab showed minimal aggregation over the intended shelf life when formulated as a high concentration liquid product (100 mg/mL) for subcutaneous administration. In vivo, golimumab at doses of 1 and 10 mg/kg significantly delayed disease progression in a mouse model of human TNFα-induced arthritis when compared with untreated mice, while infliximab was effective only at 10 mg/kg. Golimumab also significantly reduced histological scores for arthritis severity and cartilage damage, as well as serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines associated with arthritis. Thus, we have demonstrated that golimumab is a highly stable human monoclonal antibody with high affinity and capacity to neutralize human TNFα in vitro and in vivo.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression via degradation or translational repression of their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Recent studies have clearly demonstrated that miRNAs play critical roles in several biologic processes, including cell cycle, differentiation, cell development, cell growth, and apoptosis and that miRNAs are highly expressed in regulatory T (Treg) cells and a wide range of miRNAs are involved in the regulation of immunity and in the prevention of autoimmunity. It has been increasingly reported that miRNAs are associated with various humandiseases like autoimmune disease, skin disease, neurological disease and psychiatric disease. Recently, the identification of mi- RNAs in skin has added a new dimension in the regulatory network and attracted significant interest in this novel layer of gene regulation. Although miRNA research in the field of dermatology is still relatively new, miRNAs have been the subject of much dermatological interest in skin morphogenesis and in regulating angiogenesis. In addition, miRNAs are moving rapidly onto center stage as key regulators of neuronal development and function in addition to important contributions to neurodegenerative disorder. Moreover, there is now compelling evidence that dysregulation of miRNA networks is implicated in the development and onset of human neruodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Tourette's syndrome, Down syndrome, depression and schizophrenia. In this review, I briefly summarize the current studies about the roles of miRNAs in various autoimmune diseases, skin diseases, psychoneurological disorders and mental stress.

The formation of blood vessels is a vital process in embryonic development and in normal physiology. Current vascular modelling is mainly based on animal biology leading to species-to-species variation when extrapolating the results to humans. Although there are a few human cell based vascular models available these assays are insufficiently characterized in terms of culture conditions and developmental stage of vascular structures. Therefore, well characterized vascular models with human relevance are needed for basic research, embryotoxicity testing, development of therapeutic strategies and for tissue engineering. We have previously shown that the in vitro vascular model based on co-culture of human adipose stromal cells (hASC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) is able to induce an extensive vascular-like network with high reproducibility. In this work we developed a defined serum-free vascular stimulation medium (VSM) and performed further characterization in terms of cell identity, maturation and structure to obtain a thoroughly characterized in vitro vascular model to replace or reduce corresponding animal experiments. The results showed that the novel vascular stimulation medium induced intact and evenly distributed vascular-like network with morphology of mature vessels. Electron microscopic analysis assured the three-dimensional microstructure of the network containing lumen. Additionally, elevated expressions of the main human angiogenesis-related genes were detected. In conclusion, with the new defined medium the vascular model can be utilized as a characterized test system for chemical testing as well as in creating vascularized tissue models.

The glomerular basement membrane antigen involved in Goodpasture syndrome was purified from human kidneys. The antigen was solubilized by collagenase digestion and purified by ion exchange chromatography, gel filtration and reversed phase HPLC. The monomer proteins (M1, M2*, and M3) were immunochemically compared with the corresponding bovine monomers and appeared to be identical. The Goodpasture reactivity was localized to the same monomer (M2*) as in bovine material. It could also be shown that eight out of nine patients with Goodpasture syndrome had circulating antibodies reacting with a crude collagenase digest of human glomerular basement membrane that could be inhibited by the active monomer peptide. The ninth patient had, besides antibodies to this peptide, antibodies to the 7S domain of type IV collagen. Further immunochemical studies indicate that all patients sera recognize the same site(s) on the monomer protein. Thus the major antigenic determinant(s) of Goodpasture syndrome resides in monomer M2* which is a constituent of the globular domain of collagen IV. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 PMID:3652534

Regenerating gene (Reg or REG) family, within the superfamily of C-type lectin, is mainly involved in the liver,pancreatic, gastric and intestinal cell proliferation or differentiation. Considerable attention has focused on Reg family and its structurally related molecules. Over the last 15 years, 17 members of the Reg family have been cloned and sequenced. They have been considered as members of a conserved protein family sharing structural and some functional properties being involved in injury, inflammation,diabetes and carcinogenesis. We previously identified Reg Ⅳ as a strong candidate for a gene that was highly expressed in colorectal adenoma when compared to normal mucosa based on suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH),reverse Northern blot, semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR)and Northern blot. In situ hybridization results further support that overexpression of Reg Ⅳ may be an early event in colorectal carcinogenesis. We suggest that detection of Reg Ⅳ overexpression might be useful in the early diagnosis of carcinomatous transformation of adenoma.This review summarizes the roles of Reg family in diseases in the literature as well as our recent results of Reg Ⅳ in colorectal cancer. The biological properties of Reg family and its possible roles in humandiseases are discussed. We particularly focus on the roles of Reg family as sensitive reactants of tissue injury, prognostic indicators of tumor survival and early biomarkers of carcinogenesis. In addition to our current understanding of Reg gene functions, we postulate that there might be relationships between Reg family and microsatellite instability, apoptosis and cancer with a poor prognosis. Investigation of the correlation between tumor Reg expression and survival rate, and analysis of the Reg gene status in human maliganancies, are required to elucidate the biologic consequences of Reg gene expression, the implications for Reg gene regulation of cell growth, tumorigenesis

textabstractBackground: Prospective national screening and surveillance programmes serve a range of public health functions. Objectively determining their adequacy and impact on disease may be problematic for rare disorders. We undertook to assess whether objective measures of disease surveillance

Glutathione reductase (NAD(P)h:oxidized glutathione oxidoreductase, EC 1.6.4.2) has been purified 1000-fold from the cytoplasmic fraction of human platelets. Salts, including the heretofore unreported effect of sodium citrate, activate the NADPH-dependent reduction of oxidized glutathione. Sodium citrate and monovalent salt activation appears to involve multiple sites having different binding affinities. At sub-saturating sodium phosphate, non-linear double reciprocal plots indicative of substrate activation by oxidized glutathione were observed. Initial velocity double reciprocal plots at sub-saturating and saturating concentrations of phosphate generate a family of converging lines. NADP+ is a partial inhibitor, indicating that the reduction of oxidized glutathione can proceed by more than one pathway. FMN, FAD, and riboflavin inhibit platelet glutathione reductase by influencing only the V while nitrofurantoin inhibition is associated with an increase Koxidized glutathione and a decreased V.

Full Text Available We present the analysis of twenty human genomes to evaluate the prospects for identifying rare functional variants that contribute to a phenotype of interest. We sequenced at high coverage ten "case" genomes from individuals with severe hemophilia A and ten "control" genomes. We summarize the number of genetic variants emerging from a study of this magnitude, and provide a proof of concept for the identification of rare and highly-penetrant functional variants by confirming that the cause of hemophilia A is easily recognizable in this data set. We also show that the number of novel single nucleotide variants (SNVs discovered per genome seems to stabilize at about 144,000 new variants per genome, after the first 15 individuals have been sequenced. Finally, we find that, on average, each genome carries 165 homozygous protein-truncating or stop loss variants in genes representing a diverse set of pathways.

Full Text Available Our previous study demonstrated that human KIAA0100 gene was a novel acute monocytic leukemia-associated antigen (MLAA gene. But the functional characterization of human KIAA0100 gene has remained unknown to date. Here, firstly, bioinformatic prediction of human KIAA0100 gene was carried out using online softwares; Secondly, Human KIAA0100 gene expression was downregulated by the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR/CRISPR-associated (Cas 9 system in U937 cells. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were next evaluated in KIAA0100-knockdown U937 cells. The bioinformatic prediction showed that human KIAA0100 gene was located on 17q11.2, and human KIAA0100 protein was located in the secretory pathway. Besides, human KIAA0100 protein contained a signalpeptide, a transmembrane region, three types of secondary structures (alpha helix, extended strand, and random coil , and four domains from mitochondrial protein 27 (FMP27. The observation on functional characterization of human KIAA0100 gene revealed that its downregulation inhibited cell proliferation, and promoted cell apoptosis in U937 cells. To summarize, these results suggest human KIAA0100 gene possibly comes within mitochondrial genome; moreover, it is a novel anti-apoptotic factor related to carcinogenesis or progression in acute monocytic leukemia, and may be a potential target for immunotherapy against acute monocytic leukemia.

Upon completion of sequencing the Drosophila genome, it was estimated that 61% of humandisease-associated genes had sequence homologs in flies, and in some diseases such as cancer, the number was as high as 68%. We now know that as many as 75% of the genes associated with genetic disease have counterparts in Drosophila. Using better tools for mutation detection, association studies and whole genome analysis the number of human genes associated with genetic disease is steadily increasing. These detection efforts are outpacing the ability to assign function and understand the underlying cause of the disease at the molecular level. Drosophila models can therefore advance humandisease research in a number of ways by: establishing the normal role of these gene products during development, elucidating the mechanism underlying disease pathology, and even identifying candidate therapeutic agents for the treatment of humandisease. At the 49(th) Annual Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego this year, a number of labs presented their exciting findings on Drosophila models of humandisease in both platform presentations and poster sessions. Here we can only briefly review some of these developments, and we apologize that we do not have the time or space to review all of the findings presented which use Drosophila to understand humandisease etiology.

Uch37 is a deubiquitylating enzyme (DUB) that is functionally linked with multiple protein complexes and signal transduction pathways. Uch37 associates with the 26S proteasome through Rpn13 where it serves to remove distal ubiquitin moeities from polyubiquitylated proteins. Uch37's proteasome associated activity was shown to liberate proteins from destruction. However, Uch37 may also specifically facilitate the destruction of inducible nitric oxide synthase and I{kappa}B-{alpha} at the proteasome. Wicks et al. established Uch37's potential to modulate the transforming growth factor-{beta}(TGF-{beta}) signaling cascade, through tis interaction with SMAD7. Yao et al. demonstrated that Uch37 also associates with the Ino80 chromatin-remodeling complex (Ino80 complex), which is involved in DNA repair and transcriptional regulation. Uch37's importance in metazoan development was underscored recently as Uch37 knockouts in mice result in prenatal lethality, where mutant embryos had severe defects in brain development. Protein ubiquitylation is an ATP-dependent post-translational modification that serves to signal a wide variety of cellular processes in eukaryotes. A protein cascade, generally comprising three enzymes, functions to activate, transport and specifically transfer ubiquitin to the targeted protein, culminating in an isopeptide linkage between the {epsilon}-amino group of a target protein's lysysl residue and the ubiquitin's terminal carboxylate. Monoubiquitination plays an important role in histone regulation, endocytosis, and viral budding. Further processing of the target protein may be accomplished by ubiquitylation of the protein on a different lysine, or through the formation of polyubiquitin chains, where the best-characterized outcome is destruction of the polyubiquitin-labeled protein in the proteasome. DUBs catalyze the removal of ubiquitin from proteins. This activity serves to reverse the effects of ubiquitination, permit

Full Text Available The ability to generate human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs holds great promise for the understanding and the treatment of human neurological diseases in modern medicine. The hPSCs are considered for their in vitro use as research tools to provide relevant cellular model for humandiseases, drug discovery and toxicity assays and for their in vivo use in regenerative medicine applications. In this review, we highlight recent progress, promises and challenges of hPSC applications in human neurological disease modelling and therapies.

Reliable disease models are needed in order to improve quality of healthcare. This includes gaining better understanding of disease mechanisms, developing new therapeutic interventions and personalizing treatment. Up-to-date, the majority of our knowledge about disease states comes from in vivo...

Full Text Available Background: Pulpal diseases are the most common entities in the dentist emergency consultation. For a correct indication of the treatment, it is very important to establish an accurate diagnosis. Objective: to characterize carrier patients with inflammatory pulpal disease. Methods: a descriptive, prospective cases series study which included 222 patients who came to the dentistry emergency consultation in Area I health policlinic. Age, type of disease, cause, more implicated teeth in the disease, visits, and previous treatments were the variables included. Results: there was no difference at all regarding sex. The most affected group of age was from 35 to 59 years old. The inferior molars were the most affected teeth. The main cause was dental cavities. Obturation was the previous treatment more presented. 46% of the patients attended the dentist in more than one occasion with the same process. Acute irreversible pulpitis was the most predominant pulpal disease. Conclusions: The most common pulpal diseases in our milieu was the acute irreversible pulpitis among the ages 35 and 59 years old.

Full Text Available Background: Cienfuegos has a high prevalence of chronic kidney disease, which is a health problem of great social and economic impact. Objective: to characterize patients with chronic kidney disease receiving hemodialysis. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted in 80 patients treated at the Specialized Outpatient Center of Cienfuegos in 2013. General variables such as age, sex, and place of origin were analyzed, in addition to the causes of the disease, length of time on hemodialysis, type of vascular access, and prevalence of hepatitis C. Absolute frequencies, percentages, and rates were calculated. Results: the 45 to 54 age group was the most affected by the condition. Males accounted for 63.7%. Cienfuegos municipality showed the highest prevalence with 27.6 per 100 000 inhabitants. The most common cause of chronic kidney disease was nephroangiosclerosis (33.3%. Seventy three percent of patients started hemodialysis as an emergency therapy. The time on hemodialysis was less than one year and one to two years in more than half of patients. An arteriovenous fistula was used in 81.3% of cases. Hepatitis C showed a high prevalence. Conclusion: renal disease is more common in men of working age in Cienfuegos municipality. The major causes of this disease are associated with hypertension and diabetes mellitus.

In order to provide better sustainable groundwater quality management and minimize the impact of contamination in humans, improved understanding and quantification of the interaction between hydrogeological models, geological site information and human health are needed. Considering the joint influence of these components in the overall human health risk assessment and the corresponding sources of uncertainty aid decision makers to better allocate resources in data acquisition campaigns. This is important to (1) achieve remediation goals in a cost-effective manner, (2) protect human health and (3) keep water supplies clean in order to keep with quality standards. Such task is challenging since a full characterization of the subsurface is unfeasible due to financial and technological constraints. In addition, human exposure and physiological response to contamination are subject to uncertainty and variability. Normally, sampling strategies are developed with the goal of reducing uncertainty, but less often they are developed in the context of their impacts on the overall system uncertainty. Therefore, quantifying the impact from each of these components (hydrogeological, behavioral and physiological) in final human health risk prediction can provide guidance for decision makers to best allocate resources towards minimal prediction uncertainty. In this presentation, a multi-component human health risk-based framework is presented which allows decision makers to set priorities through an information entropy-based visualization tool. Results highlight the role of characteristic length-scales characterizing flow and transport in determining data needs within an integrated hydrogeological-health framework. Conditions where uncertainty reduction in human health risk predictions may benefit from better understanding of the health component, as opposed to a more detailed hydrogeological characterization, are also discussed. Finally, results illustrate how different dose

This thesis focuses on the characterization of the biological and functional properties of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), isolated from different tissue sources. The differentiation capacity of MSCs from fetal and adult tissues has been tested and compared. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) has be

was characterized in human SP-D. The carbohydrate was determined as a complex type bi-antennary structure, with a small content of mono-antennary and tri-antennary structures. No sialic acid residues were present on the glycan, but some had an attached fucose and/or an N-acetylglucosamine residue linked to the core...

IGF1, SOX15, BMPR1B, TGFBR1, etc), which fall into distinct GO categories including SC, development, stress response, and wound healing (unpublished...prostate cancer through the elucidation of the role of cancer stem cells in the pathogenesis of the disease. During the past year, we have made the...studies, ii) in vitro co-culture of human prostate cancer cells (established cell lines and primary patient samples) with human prostate fibroblasts

Global health institutions have called for governments, international organisations and health practitioners to employ a human rights-based approach to infectious diseases. The motivation for a human rights approach is clear: poverty and inequality create conditions for infectious diseases to thrive, and the diseases, in turn, interact with social-ecological systems to promulgate poverty, inequity and indignity. Governments and intergovernmental organisations should be concerned with the control and elimination of these diseases, as widespread infections delay economic growth and contribute to higher healthcare costs and slower processes for realising universal human rights. These social determinants and economic outcomes associated with infectious diseases should interest multinational companies, partly because they have bearing on corporate productivity and, increasingly, because new global norms impose on companies a responsibility to respect human rights, including the right to health. We reviewed historical and recent developments at the interface of infectious diseases, human rights and multinational corporations. Our investigation was supplemented with field-level insights at corporate capital projects that were developed in areas of high endemicity of infectious diseases, which embraced rights-based disease control strategies. Experience and literature provide a longstanding business case and an emerging social responsibility case for corporations to apply a human rights approach to health programmes at global operations. Indeed, in an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, multinational corporations have an interest, and an important role to play, in advancing rights-based control strategies for infectious diseases. There are new opportunities for governments and international health agencies to enlist corporate business actors in disease control and elimination strategies. Guidance offered by the United Nations in 2011 that is widely embraced

There have been many calls for improved detection of zoonoses; research has not yet characterized zoonotic disease detection in the United States, in humans or animals. This research reviewed "who detects" zoonotic disease outbreaks and "how fast" they are detected. Definitions were operationalized based on existing literature and current practice. An outbreak database was created from publicly available records: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and ProMed-Mail. Univariate and bivariate statistics--including chi-square tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Dunn's method were used for analysis. From an n = 101, results showed that laboratories (human health) detected 32.7% (n = 33) of the outbreaks; physicians/clinicians (human health) detected 18.8% (n = 19). The median time to was 13 days; mean was 31.7 (range = 0-492). There was a relationship between the type of the entity (laboratory, practitioner, or state agency) and how fast the outbreak was detected; state agencies were slower in detection. There was also a significant relationship between how fast an outbreak was detected and whether the outbreak occurred in multiple regions. This research provides important empirical evidence regarding U.S. zoonotic disease outbreak detection, highlighting the difficulty in rapid detection of multi-state outbreaks and the need for rapid, sensitive diagnostic testing and astute practitioners.

Despite the magnitude of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, there is still a fundamental lack of knowledge about the pathophysiology of EVD. In particular, very little is known about human immune responses to Ebola virus. Here we evaluate the physiology of the human T cell immune response in EVD patients at the time of admission to the Ebola Treatment Center in Guinea, and longitudinally until discharge or death. Through the use of multiparametric flow cytometry established by the European Mobile Laboratory in the field, we identify an immune signature that is unique in EVD fatalities. Fatal EVD was characterized by a high percentage of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells expressing the inhibitory molecules CTLA-4 and PD-1, which correlated with elevated inflammatory markers and high virus load. Conversely, surviving individuals showed significantly lower expression of CTLA-4 and PD-1 as well as lower inflammation, despite comparable overall T cell activation. Concomitant with virus clearance, survivors mounted a robust Ebola-virus-specific T cell response. Our findings suggest that dysregulation of the T cell response is a key component of EVD pathophysiology.

in various disease processes including cancer has been gained in recent years, and the present review may help to further elucidate its aberrant role in many disease states. Its peculiar structural features [3-9] may be advantageous in designing tailor-made compounds with the possibility to specifically...

Full Text Available Sabouraud's Pityrosporum is now recognized as Malassezia. With taxonomic revision of the genus, newer species have been included. The role of this member of the normal human skin flora in different cutaneous and systemic disorders is becoming clearer. The immunological responses it induces in the human body are conflicting and their relevance to clinical features is yet to be explored.

Dystonia musculorum (dt) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disease in mice that leads to a sensory ataxia. We have identified and cloned a gene encoded at the dt locus. The product of the dt gene, dystonin, is a neural isoform of a hemidesmosomal protein bullous pemphigoid antigen 1 (bpag1). To investigate the potential role of dystonin in human neuropathies, we have cloned the neural-specific 5{prime} exons of the human DT gene that together with the previously cloned BPAG1 sequences comprise human dystonin. The mouse and human dystonin genes demonstrate the same spectrum of alternatively spliced products, and the amino acid sequences of the neural-specific exons in the mouse and human genes are over 96% identical. 17 refs., 2 figs.

Acanthamoeba spp. are free-living amebae that inhabit a variety of air, soil, and water environments. However, these amebae can also act as opportunistic as well as nonopportunistic pathogens. They are the causative agents of granulomatous amebic encephalitis and amebic keratitis and have been associated with cutaneous lesions and sinusitis. Immuno compromised individuals, including AIDS patients, are particularly susceptible to infections with Acanthamoeba. The immune defense mechanisms that operate against Acanthamoeba have not been well characterized, but it has been proposed that both innate and acquired immunity play a role. The ameba's life cycle includes an active feeding trophozoite stage and a dormant cyst stage. Trophozoites feed on bacteria, yeast, and algae. However, both trophozoites and cysts can retain viable bacteria and may serve as reservoirs for bacteria with human pathogenic potential. Diagnosis of infection includes direct microscopy of wet mounts of cerebrospinal fluid or stained smears of cerebrospinal fluid sediment, light or electron microscopy of tissues, in vitro cultivation of Acanthamoeba, and histological assessment of frozen or paraffin-embedded sections of brain or cutaneous lesion biopsy material. Immunocytochemistry, chemifluorescent dye staining, PCR, and analysis of DNA sequence variation also have been employed for laboratory diagnosis. Treatment of Acanthamoeba infections has met with mixed results. However, chlorhexidine gluconate, alone or in combination with propamidene isethionate, is effective in some patients. Furthermore, effective treatment is complicated since patients may present with underlying disease and Acanthamoeba infection may not be recognized. Since an increase in the number of cases of Acanthamoeba infections has occurred worldwide, these protozoa have become increasingly important as agents of humandisease.

Muscular diseases lead to muscle fiber degeneration, impairment of mobility, and in some cases premature death. Many of these muscular diseases are largely idiopathic. The goal of this study was to identify biomarkers based on their functional role and possible mechanisms of pathogenesis, specific to individual muscular disease. We analyzed the muscle transcriptome from five major muscular diseases: acute quadriplegic myopathy (AQM), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) using pairwise statistical comparison to identify uniquely regulated genes in each muscular disease. The genome-wide information encoded in the transcriptome provided biomarkers and functional insights into dysregulation in each muscular disease. The analysis showed that the dysregulation of genes in forward membrane pathway, responsible for transmitting action potential from neural excitation, is unique to AQM, while the dysregulation of myofibril genes, determinant of the mechanical properties of muscle, is unique to ALS, dysregulation of ER protein processing, responsible for correct protein folding, is unique to DM, and upregulation of immune response genes is unique to PM. We have identified biomarkers specific to each muscular disease which can be used for diagnostic purposes.

The human microbiome plays important roles in health, but when disrupted, these same indigenous microbes can cause disease. The composition of the microbiome changes during the transition from health to disease; however, these changes are often not conserved among patients. Since microbiome-associated diseases like periodontitis cause similar patient symptoms despite interpatient variability in microbial community composition, we hypothesized that human-associated microbial communities undergo conserved changes in metabolism during disease. Here, we used patient-matched healthy and diseased samples to compare gene expression of 160,000 genes in healthy and diseased periodontal communities. We show that health- and disease-associated communities exhibit defined differences in metabolism that are conserved between patients. In contrast, the metabolic gene expression of individual species was highly variable between patients. These results demonstrate that despite high interpatient variability in microbial composition, disease-associated communities display conserved metabolic profiles that are generally accomplished by a patient-specific cohort of microbes. IMPORTANCE The human microbiome project has shown that shifts in our microbiota are associated with many diseases, including obesity, Crohn's disease, diabetes, and periodontitis. While changes in microbial populations are apparent during these diseases, the species associated with each disease can vary from patient to patient. Taking into account this interpatient variability, we hypothesized that specific microbiota-associated diseases would be marked by conserved microbial community behaviors. Here, we use gene expression analyses of patient-matched healthy and diseasedhuman periodontal plaque to show that microbial communities have highly conserved metabolic gene expression profiles, whereas individual species within the community do not. Furthermore, disease-associated communities exhibit conserved changes

This article introduces a hypometabolic convergence index (HCI) for the assessment of Alzheimer's disease (AD); compares it to other biological, cognitive and clinical measures; and demonstrates its promise to predict clinical decline in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients using data from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). The HCI is intended to reflect in a single measurement the extent to which the pattern and magnitude of cerebral hypometabolism in an individual's fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) image correspond to that in probable AD patients, and is generated using a fully automated voxel-based image-analysis algorithm. HCIs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) hippocampal volume measurements, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assays, memory test scores, and clinical ratings were compared in 47 probable AD patients, 21 MCI patients who converted to probable AD within the next 18months, 76 MCI patients who did not, and 47 normal controls (NCs) in terms of their ability to characterize clinical disease severity and predict conversion rates from MCI to probable AD. HCIs were significantly different in the probable AD, MCI converter, MCI stable and NC groups (p=9e-17) and correlated with clinical disease severity. Using retrospectively characterized threshold criteria, MCI patients with either higher HCIs or smaller hippocampal volumes had the highest hazard ratios (HRs) for 18-month progression to probable AD (7.38 and 6.34, respectively), and those with both had an even higher HR (36.72). In conclusion, the HCI, alone or in combination with certain other biomarker measurements, has the potential to help characterize AD and predict subsequent rates of clinical decline. More generally, our conversion index strategy could be applied to a range of imaging modalities and voxel-based image-analysis algorithms.

Full Text Available Abstract Background The genetic contributions to human common disorders and mouse genetic models of disease are complex and often overlapping. In common humandiseases, unlike classical Mendelian disorders, genetic factors generally have small effect sizes, are multifactorial, and are highly pleiotropic. Likewise, mouse genetic models of disease often have pleiotropic and overlapping phenotypes. Moreover, phenotypic descriptions in the literature in both human and mouse are often poorly characterized and difficult to compare directly. Methods In this report, human genetic association results from the literature are summarized with regard to replication, disease phenotype, and gene specific results; and organized in the context of a systematic disease ontology. Similarly summarized mouse genetic disease models are organized within the Mammalian Phenotype ontology. Human and mouse disease and phenotype based gene sets are identified. These disease gene sets are then compared individually and in large groups through dendrogram analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis. Results Humandisease and mouse phenotype gene sets are shown to group into disease and phenotypically relevant groups at both a coarse and fine level based on gene sharing. Conclusion This analysis provides a systematic and global perspective on the genetics of common humandisease as compared to itself and in the context of mouse genetic models of disease.

There is conflicting evidence on the protective role of breastfeeding in relation to the development of allergic sensitisation and allergic disease. Studies vary in methodology and definition of outcomes, which lead to considerable heterogeneity. Human milk composition varies both within and between individuals, which may partially explain conflicting data. It is known that human milk composition is very complex and contains variable levels of immune active molecules, oligosaccharides, metabolites, vitamins and other nutrients and microbial content. Existing evidence suggests that modulation of human breast milk composition has potential for preventing allergic diseases in early life. In this review, we discuss associations between breastfeeding/human milk composition and allergy development. PMID:28817095

Full Text Available Abstract Background To isolate and characterization of human spermatogonial stem cells from stem spermatogonium. Methods The disassociation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs were performed using enzymatic digestion of type I collagenase and trypsin. The SSCs were isolated by using Percoll density gradient centrifugation, followed by differential surface-attachment method. Octamer-4(OCT4-positive SSC cells were further identified using immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry technques. The purity of the human SSCs was also determined, and a co-culture system for SSCs and Sertoli cells was established. Results The cell viability was 91.07% for the suspension of human spermatogonial stem cells dissociated using a two-step enzymatic digestion process. The cells isolated from Percoll density gradient coupled with differential surface-attachement purification were OCT4 positive, indicating the cells were human spermatogonial stem cells. The purity of isolated human spermatogonial stem cells was 86.7% as assessed by flow cytometry. The isolated SSCs were shown to form stable human spermatogonial stem cell colonies on the feeder layer of the Sertoli cells. Conclusions The two-step enzyme digestion (by type I collagenase and trypsin process is an economical, simple and reproducible technique for isolating human spermatogonial stem cells. With little contamination and less cell damage, this method facilitates isolated human spermatogonial stem cells to form a stable cell colony on the supporting cell layer.

The London physician and neuroanatomist Thomas Willis in the 17th century correctly attributed the source of emotions to the brain, not the heart as believed in antiquity. Contemporary research documents the phenomenon of "triggered" heart disease, when the autonomic nervous system control of the heart by the brain goes awry, producing heart disease of sudden onset, precipitated by acute emotional upheaval. This can take the form of, variously, cardiac arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and sudden death. Chronic psychological distress also can have adverse cardiovascular consequences, in the causal linkage of depressive illness to heart disease, and in the probable causation of atherosclerosis and hypertension by chronic mental stress. In patients with essential hypertension, stress biomarkers are present. The sympathetic nervous system is the usual mediator between these acute and chronic psychological substrates and cardiovascular disease.

Lyme disease, a tick-borne disease long recognized in Europe but only recently recognized in the United States, was shown in 1982-1983 to be caused by a spirochete, the Lyme disease spirochete. Whether one or more species of the spirochete exists is unknown, as is its taxonomic status. To answer these questions, we determined (i) the DNA base (guanidine-plus-cytosine) content for five strains; (ii) the DNA relatedness of 10 strains from Europe or the United States (isolated from ticks, humans, and a mouse) by DNA hybridization (hydroxyapatite assay at 50 and 65 degrees C); and (iii) the DNA relatedness to other pathogenic spirochetes. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the Lyme disease spirochete strains was 27.5 to 29.0 mol%, most similar to those of Borrelia hermsii (30.6 mol%) and Treponema hyodysenteriae (25.6 mol%) among the other spirochetes tested. DNA hybridization studies with 32P-labeled DNA from Lyme disease spirochete strain TLO-005, a human blood isolate, revealed divergence (unpaired bases) within related nucleotide sequences of only 0.0 to 1.0% for all nine Lyme disease spirochete strains tested for relatedness to TLO-005. Relatedness values of seven strains to TLO-005 were 58 to 98% (mean, 71%) in 50 degrees C reactions and 50 to 93% (mean, 69%) in 65 degrees C reactions. Two other strains, from which very low yields of DNA were obtained, showed less relatedness (36 to 50 degrees C, 38 to 47% at 65 degrees C). These were nonetheless considered to belong to the same species because of the low amount of divergence in the sequences related to TLO-005 and the absence of decreased relatedness in reactions done at 65 degrees Celsius compared with those done at 50 degrees Celsius. DNA from strain TLO-005 showed relatedness of 1% to DNAs of two leptospires and 16% relatedness to DNA from T. hyodysenteriae. B. hermsii DNA was 30 to 40% related to three Lyme disease spirochete strains in 50 degrees Celsius reactions. Divergence in these reactions was 16

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pif1p helicase is the founding member of the Pif1 subfamily that is conserved from yeast to human. The potential human homolog of the yeast PIF1 gene has been cloned from the cDNA library of the Hek293 cell line. Here, we described a purification procedure of glutathione Stransferase (GST)-fused N terminal truncated human Pif1 protein (hPif1△N) from yeast and characterized the enzymatic kinetics of its ATP hydrolysis activity. The ATPase activity of human Pif1 is dependent on divalent cation, such as Mg2+, Ca2+ and single-stranded DNA. Km for ATP for the ATPase activity is approximately 200 μM. As the ATPase activity is essential for hPif1's helicase activity, these results will facilitate the further investigation on hPif1.

A cornerstone of modern biomedical research is the use of mouse models to explore basic pathophysiological mechanisms, evaluate new therapeutic approaches, and make go or no-go decisions to carry new drug candidates forward into clinical trials. Systematic studies evaluating how well murine models mimic human inflammatory diseases are nonexistent. Here, we show that, although acute inflammatory stresses from different etiologies result in highly similar genomic responses in humans, the responses in corresponding mouse models correlate poorly with the human conditions and also, one another. Among genes changed significantly in humans, the murine orthologs are close to random in matching their human counterparts (e.g., R(2) between 0.0 and 0.1). In addition to improvements in the current animal model systems, our study supports higher priority for translational medical research to focus on the more complex human conditions rather than relying on mouse models to study human inflammatory diseases.

A cornerstone of modern biomedical research is the use of mouse models to explore basic pathophysiological mechanisms, evaluate new therapeutic approaches, and make go or no-go decisions to carry new drug candidates forward into clinical trials. Systematic studies evaluating how well murine models mimic human inflammatory diseases are nonexistent. Here, we show that, although acute inflammatory stresses from different etiologies result in highly similar genomic responses in humans, the responses in corresponding mouse models correlate poorly with the human conditions and also, one another. Among genes changed significantly in humans, the murine orthologs are close to random in matching their human counterparts (e.g., R2 between 0.0 and 0.1). In addition to improvements in the current animal model systems, our study supports higher priority for translational medical research to focus on the more complex human conditions rather than relying on mouse models to study human inflammatory diseases. PMID:23401516

Full Text Available ncRNAs are key genes in many humandiseases including cancer and viral infection, as well as providing critical functions in pathogenic organisms such as fungi, bacteria, viruses and protists. Until now the identification and characterization of ncRNAs associated with disease has been slow or inaccurate requiring many years of testing to understand complicated RNA and protein gene relationships. High-throughput sequencing now offers the opportunity to characterize miRNAs, siRNAs, snoRNAs and long ncRNAs on a genomic scale making it faster and easier to clarify how these ncRNAs contribute to the disease state. However, this technology is still relatively new, and ncRNA discovery is not an application of high priority for streamlined bioinformatics. Here we summarize background concepts and practical approaches for ncRNA analysis using high-throughput sequencing, and how it relates to understanding humandisease. As a case study, we focus on the parasitic protists Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis, where large evolutionary distance has meant difficulties in comparing ncRNAs with those from model eukaryotes. A combination of biological, computational and sequencing approaches has enabled easier classification of ncRNA classes such as snoRNAs, but has also aided the identification of novel classes. It is hoped that a higher level of understanding of ncRNA expression and interaction may aid in the development of less harsh treatment for protist-based diseases.

Heat shock proteins (HSP) perform vital cellular functions and modulate cell response pathways to physical and chemical stressors. A key feature of HSP function is the ability to interact with a broad array of protein binding partners as a means to potentiate downstream response pathways or facilitate protein folding. These binding interactions are driven by ATP-dependent conformational rearrangements in HSP proteins. The HSP70 family is evolutionarily conserved and is associated with diabetes and cancer progression and the etiopathogenesis of hepatic, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders in humans. However, functional characterization of human HSP70s has been stymied by difficulties in obtaining large quantities of purified protein. Studies of purified human HSP70 proteins are essential for downstream investigations of protein-protein interactions and in the rational design of novel family-specific therapeutics. Within this work, we present optimized protocols for the heterologous overexpression and purification of either the nucleotide binding domain (NBD) or the nucleotide and substrate binding domains of human HSPA9, HSPA8, and HSPA5 in either Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We also include initial biophysical characterization of HSPA9 and HSPA8. This work provides the basis for future biochemical studies of human HSP70 protein function and structure.

Full Text Available Transmission of prions between species is limited by the "species barrier," which hampers a full characterization of human prion strains in the mouse model. We report that the efficiency of primary transmission of prions from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients to a wild rodent species, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus, is comparable to that reported in transgenic mice carrying human prion protein, in spite of a low prion protein-sequence homology between man and vole. Voles infected with sporadic and genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease isolates show strain-specific patterns of spongiform degeneration and pathological prion protein-deposition, and accumulate protease-resistant prion protein with biochemical properties similar to the human counterpart. Adaptation of genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease isolates to voles shows little or no evidence of a transmission barrier, in contrast to the striking barriers observed during transmission of mouse, hamster, and sheep prions to voles. Our results imply that in voles there is no clear relationship between the degree of homology of the prion protein of the donor and recipient species and susceptibility, consistent with the view that the prion strain gives a major contribution to the species barrier. The vole is therefore a valuable model to study human prion diversity and, being susceptible to a range of animal prions, represents a unique tool for comparing isolates from different species.

Full Text Available Transmission of prions between species is limited by the "species barrier," which hampers a full characterization of human prion strains in the mouse model. We report that the efficiency of primary transmission of prions from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients to a wild rodent species, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus, is comparable to that reported in transgenic mice carrying human prion protein, in spite of a low prion protein-sequence homology between man and vole. Voles infected with sporadic and genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease isolates show strain-specific patterns of spongiform degeneration and pathological prion protein-deposition, and accumulate protease-resistant prion protein with biochemical properties similar to the human counterpart. Adaptation of genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease isolates to voles shows little or no evidence of a transmission barrier, in contrast to the striking barriers observed during transmission of mouse, hamster, and sheep prions to voles. Our results imply that in voles there is no clear relationship between the degree of homology of the prion protein of the donor and recipient species and susceptibility, consistent with the view that the prion strain gives a major contribution to the species barrier. The vole is therefore a valuable model to study human prion diversity and, being susceptible to a range of animal prions, represents a unique tool for comparing isolates from different species.

Full Text Available Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 and Discodin Domain Receptor 2 are the two only members of the DDR family. The DDR family is a Tyrosine Kinase Receptor (TKR family with some peculiarities compared with other Tyrosine Kinase Receptors such as their natural ligand; which in this case is the fibrillar collagen; or the slow phosphorylation pattern. These peculiarities confer a special role to the receptors present in many diseases development processes as cancer, cirrhosis or lung fibrosis. In this review it is described the overview of the DDRs structure and their role in the different disease development and the possibility to consider them as therapeutic targets.

Epigenetic factors alter phenotype without changing genotype. A primary molecular mechanism underlying epigenetics is the alteration of chromatin structure by covalent DNA modifications, covalent histone modifications, and nucleosome reorganization. Remodeling of chromatin structure regulates DNA methylation, replication, recombination, and repair as well as gene expression. As these functions would predict, dysfunction of the proteins that remodel chromatin causes an array of multi-system disorders and neoplasias. Insights from these diseases suggest that during embryonic and fetal life, environmental distortions of chromatin remodeling encode a 'molecular memory' that predispose the individual to diseases in adulthood.

in various disease processes including cancer has been gained in recent years, and the present review may help to further elucidate its aberrant role in many disease states. Its peculiar structural features [3-9] may be advantageous in designing tailor-made compounds with the possibility to specifically...... target this protein kinase [10]. Since not all the aspects of what has been published on CK2 can be covered in this review, we would like to recommend the following reviews; (i) for general information on CK2 [11-18] and (ii) with a focus on aberrant CK2 [19-22]....

The Toll-like receptor (TLR) family regulates both innate and adaptive immune responses. Given its broad effect on immunity, the function of TLRs in various humandiseases has been investigated largely by comparing the incidence of disease among persons with different polymorphisms in the genes that participate in TLR signaling. These studies demonstrate that TLR function affects several diseases, including sepsis, immunodeficiencies, atherosclerosis, and asthma. These findings have resulted in new opportunities to study the pathogenesis of disease, identify subpopulations at greater risk of disease, and, potentially, identify novel therapeutic approaches.

Psoriasis is a complex human-specific diseasecharacterized by perturbed keratinocyte proliferation and a pro-inflammatory environment in the skin. Porcine skin architecture and immunity are very similar to that in humans, rendering the pig a suitable animal model for studying the biology and tre...

Summary Chagas disease, caused by the infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic in all Latin America. Due to the increase in population migration, Chagas disease has spread worldwide and is now considered a health issue not only in endemic countries. While most chronically infected individuals remain asymptomatic, approximately 30% of the patients develop a potentially deadly cardiomyopathy. The exact mechanisms that underlie the establishment and maintenance of the cardiac pathology are not clear. However, there is consistent evidence that immunoregulatory cytokines are critical for orchestrating the immune response and, thus, influence disease development or control. While the asymptomatic (indeterminate) form represents a state of balance between the host and the parasite, the establishment of the cardiac form represents the loss of this balance. Analysis of data obtained from several studies have led to the hypothesis that the indeterminate form is associated with an anti-inflammatory cytokine profile, represented by high expression of IL-10, while cardiac form is associated with a high production of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in relation to IL-10, leading to an inflammatory profile. Here, we discuss the immunoregulatory events that might influence disease outcome, as well as the mechanisms that influence the establishment of these complex immunoregulatory networks. PMID:24611805

Full Text Available We proposed to investigate subclinical cognitive impairment secondary to chronic Chagas' disease (CCD. No similar study was previously done. The neuropsychological performance of 45 chronic Chagasic patients and 26 matched controls (age, education place and years of residency in endemic area was compared using the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE, Weschler Memory Scale (WMS and the Weschler Adult Intelligent Scale (WAIS. Non-parametric tests and Chi2 were used to compare group means and multivariate statistics in two way frequency tables for measures of independence and association of categorical variables with the disease. Results: Chagasic patients showed lower MMSE scores (p<004, poor orientation (pdisease patients resembles the cognitive dysfunction associated with white matter disease.

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) is a progressive multisystem disorder caused by mutations in the AT-mutated (ATM) gene. AT is a neurodegenerative disease primarily characterized by cerebellar degeneration in children leading to motor impairment. The disease progresses with other clinical manifestations including oculocutaneous telangiectasia, immune disorders, increased susceptibly to cancer and respiratory infections. Although genetic investigations and physiological models have established the linkage of ATM with AT onset, the mechanisms linking ATM to neurodegeneration remain undetermined, hindering therapeutic development. Several murine models of AT have been successfully generated showing some of the clinical manifestations of the disease, however they do not fully recapitulate the hallmark neurological phenotype, thus highlighting the need for a more suitable animal model. We engineered a novel porcine model of AT to better phenocopy the disease and bridge the gap between human and current animal models. The initial characterization of AT pigs revealed early cerebellar lesions including loss of Purkinje cells (PCs) and altered cytoarchitecture suggesting a developmental etiology for AT and could advocate for early therapies for AT patients. In addition, similar to patients, AT pigs show growth retardation and develop motor deficit phenotypes. By using the porcine system to model human AT, we established the first animal model showing PC loss and motor features of the humandisease. The novel AT pig provides new opportunities to unmask functions and roles of ATM in AT disease and in physiological conditions.

, signal its presence and mediate its repair. Such responses, which have an impact on a wide range of cellular events, are biologically significant because they prevent diverse humandiseases. Our improving understanding of DNA-damage responses is providing new avenues for disease management....

A large part of the human genome consists of repetitive DNA. In this thesis two humandiseases have been studied in which deregulation of repetitive DNA is a central feature: facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and immunodeficiency, centromere instability and facial anomalies (ICF) syndrom

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Molecular studies of the humandisease transcriptome typically involve a search for genes whose expression is significantly dysregulated in sick individuals compared to healthy controls. Recent studies have found that only a small number of the genes in humandisease-related pathways show consistent dysregulation in sick individuals. However, those studies found that some pathway genes are affected in most sick individuals, but genes can differ among individuals. While a pathway is usually defined as a set of genes known to share a specific function, pathway boundaries are frequently difficult to assign, and methods that rely on such definition cannot discover novel pathways. Protein interaction networks can potentially be used to overcome these problems. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We present DEGAS (DysrEgulated Gene set Analysis via Subnetworks, a method for identifying connected gene subnetworks significantly enriched for genes that are dysregulated in specimens of a disease. We applied DEGAS to seven humandiseases and obtained statistically significant results that appear to home in on compact pathways enriched with hallmarks of the diseases. In Parkinson's disease, we provide novel evidence for involvement of mRNA splicing, cell proliferation, and the 14-3-3 complex in the disease progression. DEGAS is available as part of the MATISSE software package (http://acgt.cs.tau.ac.il/matisse. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The subnetworks identified by DEGAS can provide a signature of the disease potentially useful for diagnosis, pinpoint possible pathways affected by the disease, and suggest targets for drug intervention.

AIM: Salt reabsorption across the apical membrane of cells in the thick ascending limb (TAL) of Henle is primarily mediated by the bumetanide-sensitive Na(+)/K(+)/2Cl(-) cotransporter NKCC2. Three full-length splice variants of NKCC2 (NKCC2B, NKCC2A and NKCC2F) have been described. The NKCC2...... isoforms have specific localizations and transport characteristics, as assessed for rabbit, rat and mouse. In the present study, we aimed to address the localization and transport characteristics of the human NKCC2 isoforms. METHODS: RT-PCR, in situ hybridization and uptake studies in Xenopus oocytes were...... performed to characterizehuman NKCC2 isoforms. RESULTS: All three classical NKCC2 isoforms were detected in the human kidney; in addition, we found splice variants with tandem duplicates of the variable exon 4. Contrary to rodents, in which NKCC2F is the most abundant NKCC2 isoform, NKCC2A was the dominant...

Full Text Available Gut bacteria are an important component of the microbiota ecosystem in the human gut, which is colonized by 1014 microbes, ten times more than the human cells. Gut bacteria play an important role in human health, such as supplying essential nutrients, synthesizing vitamin K, aiding in the digestion of cellulose, and promoting angiogenesis and enteric nerve function. However, they can also be potentially harmful due to the change of their composition when the gut ecosystem undergoes abnormal changes in the light of the use of antibiotics, illness, stress, aging, bad dietary habits, and lifestyle. Dysbiosis of the gut bacteria communities can cause many chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, cancer, and autism. This review summarizes and discusses the roles and potential mechanisms of gut bacteria in human health and diseases.

Intercellular communication via gap junctions allows cells within multicellular organisms to share small molecules. The effect of such interactions has been elucidated using mouse gene knockout strategies. Although several mutations in human gap junction-encoding connexin(Cx) have been described, Cx mutants in mice do not always recapitulate the humandisease. Among the 20 mouse Cxs, Cx26, Cx43, and Cx45 play roles in early cardiac or placental development, and disruption of the genes results in lethality that hampers further analyses. Embryonic stem cells(ESCs) that lack Cx43 or Cx45 have made analysis feasible in both in vitro differentiated cell cultures and in vivo chimeric tissues. The success of mouse ESCs studies is leading to the use of induced pluripotent stem cells to learn more about the pathogenesis of human Cx diseases. This review summarizes the current status of mouse Cx disruption models and ESC differentiation studies, and discusses their implication for understanding human Cx diseases.

Intercellular communication via gap junctions allows cells within multicellular organisms to share small molecules. The effect of such interactions has been elucidated using mouse gene knockout strategies. Although several mutations in human gap junction-encoding connexin (Cx) have been described, Cx mutants in mice do not always recapitulate the humandisease. Among the 20 mouse Cxs, Cx26, Cx43, and Cx45 play roles in early cardiac or placental development, and disruption of the genes results in lethality that hampers further analyses. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) that lack Cx43 or Cx45 have made analysis feasible in both in vitro differentiated cell cultures and in vivo chimeric tissues. The success of mouse ESCs studies is leading to the use of induced pluripotent stem cells to learn more about the pathogenesis of human Cx diseases. This review summarizes the current status of mouse Cx disruption models and ESC differentiation studies, and discusses their implication for understanding human Cx diseases.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are the non-coding RNAs that act as post-translational regulators to their complimentary messenger RNAs (mRNA). Due to their specific gene silencing property, miRNAs have been implicated in a number of cellular and developmental processes. Also, it has been proposed that a particular set of miRNA spectrum is expressed only in a particular type of tissue. Many interesting findings related to the differential expression of miRNAs in various humandiseases including several types of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic diseases have been reported. Deregulation of miRNA expression in different types of humandiseases and the roles various miRNAs play as tumour suppressors as well as oncogenes, suggest their contribution to cancer and/or in other disease development. These findings have possible implications in the development of diagnostics and/or therapeutics in human malignancies. In this review, we discuss various miRNAs that are differentially expressed in human chronic inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and the further prospective development of miRNA based diagnostics and therapeutics.

What evolutionary forces shape genes that contribute to the risk of humandisease? Do similar selective pressures act on alleles that underlie simple vs. complex disorders? [1-3]. Answers to these questions will shed light on the origin of human disorders (e.g., [4]), and help to predict the population frequencies of alleles that contribute to disease risk, with important implications for the efficient design of mapping studies [5-7]. As a first step towards addressing them, we created a hand-curated version of the Mendelian Inheritance in Man database (OMIM). We then examined selective pressures on Mendelian disease genes, genes that contribute to complex disease risk and genes known to be essential in mouse, by analyzing patterns of human polymorphism and of divergence between human and rhesus macaque. We find that Mendelian disease genes appear to be under widespread purifying selection, especially when the disease mutations are dominant (rather than recessive). In contrast, the class of genes that influence complex disease risk shows little signs of evolutionary conservation, possibly because this category includes both targets of purifying and positive selection. PMID:18571414

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, displays significant genetic variability revealed by six Discrete Typing Units (TcI-TcVI. In this pathology, oral transmission represents an emerging epidemiological scenario where different outbreaks associated to food/beverages consumption have been reported in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela. In Colombia, six human oral outbreaks have been reported corroborating the importance of this transmission route. Molecular epidemiology of oral outbreaks is barely known observing the incrimination of TcI, TcII, TcIV and TcV genotypes. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: High-throughput molecular characterization was conducted performing MLMT (Multilocus Microsatellite Typing and mtMLST (mitochondrial Multilocus Sequence Typing strategies on 50 clones from ten isolates. Results allowed observing the occurrence of TcI, TcIV and mixed infection of distinct TcI genotypes. Thus, a majority of specific mitochondrial haplotypes and allelic multilocus genotypes associated to the sylvatic cycle of transmission were detected in the dataset with the foreseen presence of mitochondrial haplotypes and allelic multilocus genotypes associated to the domestic cycle of transmission. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the incrimination of sylvatic genotypes in the oral outbreaks occurred in Colombia. We observed patterns of super-infection and/or co-infection with a tailored association with the severe forms of myocarditis in the acute phase of the disease. The transmission dynamics of this infection route based on molecular epidemiology evidence was unraveled and the clinical and biological implications are discussed.

A disease phenotype generally reflects various pathobiological processes that interact in a complex network. The highly interconnected nature of the human protein interaction network (interactome) indicates that, at the molecular level, it is difficult to consider diseases as being independent of one another. Recently, genome-wide molecular measurements, data mining and bioinformatics approaches have provided the means to explore humandiseases from a molecular basis. The exploration of diseases and a system of disease relationships based on the integration of genome-wide molecular data with the human interactome could offer a powerful perspective for understanding the molecular architecture of diseases. Recently, subnetwork markers have proven to be more robust and reliable than individual biomarker genes selected based on gene expression profiles alone, and achieve higher accuracy in disease classification. We have applied one of these methodologies to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) data that we have generated using a microarray and identified significant subnetworks associated with the disease. In this paper, we review the recent endeavours in this direction, and summarize the existing methodologies and computational tools for network-based analysis of complex diseases and molecular relationships among apparently different disorders and humandisease network. We also discuss the future research trends and topics of this promising field.

Flavin-containing mono-oxygenases are known as potent drug-metabolizing enzymes, providing complementary functions to the well-investigated cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenases. While human FMO isoforms are typically involved in the oxidation of soft nucleophiles, the biocatalytic activity of human FMO5 (along its physiological role) has long remained unexplored. In this study, we demonstrate the atypical in vitro activity of human FMO5 as a Baeyer-Villiger mono-oxygenase on a broad range of substrates, revealing the first example to date of a human protein catalyzing such reactions. The isolated and purified protein was active on diverse carbonyl compounds, whereas soft nucleophiles were mostly non- or poorly reactive. The absence of the typical characteristic sequence motifs sets human FMO5 apart from all characterized Baeyer-Villiger mono-oxygenases so far. These findings open new perspectives in human oxidative metabolism.

Full Text Available Transglutaminases are a family of Ca2+-dependent enzymes which catalyze post-translational modifications of proteins. The main activity of these enzymes is the cross-linking of glutaminyl residues of a protein/peptide substrate to lysyl residues of a protein/peptide co-substrate. In addition to lysyl residues, other second nucleophilic co-substrates may include monoamines or polyamines (to form mono- or bi-substituted/crosslinked adducts or –OH groups (to form ester linkages. In absence of co-substrates, the nucleophile may be water, resulting in the net deamidation of the glutaminyl residue. Transglutaminase activity has been suggested to be involved in molecular mechanisms responsible for both physiological or pathological processes. In particular, transglutaminase activity has been shown to be responsible for human autoimmune diseases, Celiac Disease is just one of them. Interestingly, neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, supranuclear palsy, Huntington’s Disease and other polyglutamine diseases, are characterized in part by aberrant cerebral transglutaminase activity and by increased cross-linked proteins in affected brains. This review describes the possible molecular mechanisms by which these enzymes could be responsible for such diseases and the possible use of transglutaminase inhibitors for patients with diseasescharacterized by aberrant transglutaminase activity.

Newcastle disease (ND) is a devastating worldwide disease of poultry characterized by increased respiration, circulatory disturbances, hemorrhagic enteritis, and nervous signs. Sequence analysis shows several amino acid residue substitutions at neutralizing epitopes on the F and HN proteins of recent Shaanxi strains. Both Cross protection and cross serum neutralization tests revealed that the traditional vaccine strains were unable to provide full protection for the flocks. To better understand the epidemiology of Newcastle disease outbreak, a portion of the F gene and the full-length HN gene were amplified from Shaanxi isolates by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and then conducted sequence and phylogenetic analyzes. In pathogenicity analysis, both high intra-cerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) and mean death time (MDT) tests of chicken embryo were carried out. Furthermore, a cross-protection experiment in which specific-pathogen-free chickens vaccinated with a LaSota vaccine strain were challenged by the recent Shaanxi strain was also performed. Nine Newcastle disease (ND) virus (NDV) isolates which were recovered from ND outbreaks in chicken flocks in China were genotypically and pathotypically characterized. Amino acid sequence analysis revealed that all the recent Shaanxi-isolated NDVs have (112)R-R-Q-K-R-F(117) for the C-terminus of the F2 protein and exhibit high ICPI and MDT of chicken embryos, suggesting that they were all classified as velogenic type of NDVs. Phylogenetic analysis of these isolates showed that they belong to subgenotype VIId that have been implicated in the recent outbreaks in northwestern China. The percentage of amino acid sequence identity of F protein between recent Shaanxi stains and five vaccine strains was in the range of 81.9 %-88.1 %, while the percentage of amino acid sequence identity of HN protein between recent Shaanxi strains and vaccine strains was in the range of 87.4 %-91.2 %. Furthermore, a number

Full Text Available Lipids comprise the bulk of the dry mass of the brain. In addition to providing structural integrity to membranes, insulation to cells and acting as a source of energy, lipids can be rapidly converted to mediators of inflammation or to signaling molecules that control molecular and cellular events in the brain. The advent of soft ionization procedures such as electrospray ionization (ESI and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI have made it possible for compositional studies of the diverse lipid structures that are present in brain. These include phospholipids, ceramides, sphingomyelin, cerebrosides, cholesterol and their oxidized derivatives. Lipid analyses have delineated metabolic defects in disease conditions including mental retardation, Parkinson's Disease (PD, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease (AD, depression, brain development, and ischemic stroke. In this review, we examine the structure of the major lipid classes in the brain, describe methods used for their characterization, and evaluate their role in neurological diseases. The potential utility of characterizing lipid markers in the brain, with specific emphasis on disease mechanisms, will be discussed. Additionally, we describe several proteomic strategies for characterizing lipid-metabolizing proteins in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF. These proteins may be potential therapeutic targets since they transport lipids required for neuronal growth or convert lipids into molecules that control brain physiology. Combining lipidomics and proteomics will enhance existing knowledge of disease pathology and increase the likelihood of discovering specific markers and biochemical mechanisms of brain diseases.

Full Text Available Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs are a heterogeneous class of RNAs that are generally defined as non-protein-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. Recently, an increasing number of studies have shown that lncRNAs can be involved in various critical biological processes, such as chromatin remodeling, gene transcription, and protein transport and trafficking. Moreover, lncRNAs are dysregulated in a number of complex humandiseases, including coronary artery diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders, and various cancers, which indicates their important roles in these diseases. Here, we reviewed the current understanding of lncRNAs, including their definition and subclassification, regulatory functions, and potential roles in different types of complex humandiseases.

Autoimmune diseases encompass a plethora of conditions in which the immune system attacks its own tissue, identifying them as foreign. Multiple factors are thought to contribute to the development of immune response to self, including differences in genotypes, hormonal milieu, and environmental...... manner. In this study by means of genetic epidemiology, we have searched for the involvement of endogenous retroviruses in three selected autoimmune diseases: multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and rheumatoid arthritis. We found that at least one human endogenous retroviral locus...... was associated with each of the three diseases. Although there was a significant overlap, most loci only occurred in one of the studied disease. Remarkably, within each disease, there was a statistical interaction (synergy) between two loci. Additional synergy between retroviral loci and human lymphocyte...

Smith`s disease (also known as dentatorubral pallidoluysian atrophy or DRPLA) is a rare, progressive, fatal neuropsychiatric disorder similar to Huntington`s disease (HD). Smith`s disease is characterized by ataxia, choreoathetosis, myoclonic epilepsy, dementia, and genetic anticipation. Neuropathological findings include prominent cell loss in the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum, the globus pallidus, the red nucleus, and the subthalamic nucleus. An expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat encoding polyglutamine in a gene originally identified in our laboratory as part of a program to clone candidate genes for disorders with anticipation has recently been found to cause this disorder. We have identified two families that demonstrate the pathological and genetic features (expanded CAG repeat and anticipation) of this disease. Northern analysis indicates that the gene, which we have termed atrophin-1, is widely expressed as a 5 kb mRNA in normal human brain and peripheral tissues. Brain expression is highest in the cerebellum. The developmental expression of the rat homologues of IT-15 (the gene in which a CAG expansion causes HD) and atrophin-1 were compared. Atrophin-1 was most highly expressed in early rat embryo brain (E16), whereas the greatest expression of IT-15 was in the adult rat brain. Cloning and sequencing of the open reading frame from inserts contained in brain cDNA libraries is in progress. In addition to the CAG repeat, the ORF contains an unusual region of alternating acidic and basic amino acids. Further characterization of atrophin-1, and comparison of it to other genes in which trinucleotide repeat expansion leads to neuropsychiatric disorders, should lead to a better understanding of the pathophysiology by which CAG repeat expansion causes humandisease.

We have established that human genome sequences encoding a novel protein domain, DUF1220, show a dramatically elevated copy number in the human lineage (>200 copies in humans vs. 1 in mouse/rat) and may be important to human evolutionary adaptation. Copy-number variations (CNVs) in the 1q21.1 region, where most DUF1220 sequences map, have now been implicated in numerous diseases associated with cognitive dysfunction, including autism, autism spectrum disorder, mental retardation, schizophrenia, microcephaly, and macrocephaly. We report here that these disease-related 1q21.1 CNVs either encompass or are directly flanked by DUF1220 sequences and exhibit a dosage-related correlation with human brain size. Microcephaly-producing 1q21.1 CNVs are deletions, whereas macrocephaly-producing 1q21.1 CNVs are duplications. Similarly, 1q21.1 deletions and smaller brain size are linked with schizophrenia, whereas 1q21.1 duplications and larger brain size are associated with autism. Interestingly, these two diseases are thought to be phenotypic opposites. These data suggest a model which proposes that (1) DUF1220 domain copy number may be involved in influencing human brain size and (2) the evolutionary advantage of rapidly increasing DUF1220 copy number in the human lineage has resulted in favoring retention of the high genomic instability of the 1q21.1 region, which, in turn, has precipitated a spectrum of recurrent human brain and developmental disorders.

Since time immemorial animals have been a major source of human infectious disease. Certain infections like rabies are recognized as zoonoses caused in each case by direct animal-to-human transmission. Others like measles became independently sustained with the human population so that the causative virus has diverged from its animal progenitor. Recent examples of direct zoonoses are variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease arising from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Hong Kong. Epidemics of recent animal origin are the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Some retroviruses jump into and out of the chromosomal DNA of the host germline, so that they oscillate between being inherited Mendelian traits or infectious agents in different species. Will new procedures like animal-to-human transplants unleash further infections? Do microbes become more virulent upon cross-species transfer? Are animal microbes a threat as biological weapons? Will the vast reservoir of immunodeficient hosts due to the HIV pandemic provide conditions permissive for sporadic zoonoses to take off as human-to-human transmissible diseases? Do human infections now pose a threat to endangered primates? These questions are addressed in this lecture.

Research to elucidate the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus has traditionally focused on the genetic and immunological factors associated with the disease, and, until recently, has not considered the target cell. While there have been reports detailing proteomic analyses of established islet cell lines or isolated rodent islets, the information gained is not always easily extrapolated to humans. Therefore, extensive characterization of the human islet proteome could result in better understanding of islet biology and lead to more effective treatment strategies. We have applied a two-dimensional LC-MS/MS-based analysis to the characterization of the human islet proteome, resulting in the detection of 29,021 unique peptides corresponding to 4,925 proteins. As expected, major islet hormones (insulin, glucagon, somatostatin), beta-cell enriched secretory products (IAPP), ion channels (K-ATP channel), and transcription factors (PDX-1, Nkx 6.1, HNF-1 beta) were detected. In addition, significant proteome coverage of metabolic enzymes and cellular pathways was obtained, including the insulin signaling cascade and the MAP kinase, NF-κβ, and JAK/STAT pathways. This work represents the most extensive characterization of the human islet proteome to date and provides a peptide reference library that may be utilized in future studies of islet biology and type 1 diabetes.

The purpose of this paper is to show applicability of multifractal analysis in investigations of the morphological changes of ultra-structures of red blood cells (RBCs) membrane skeleton measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Human RBCs obtained from healthy and hypertensive donors as well as healthy erythrocytes irradiated with neutrons (45 μGy) were studied. The membrane skeleton of the cells was imaged using AFM in a contact mode. Morphological characterization of the three-dimensional RBC surfaces was realized by a multifractal method. The nanometre scale study of human RBCs surface morphology revealed a multifractal geometry. The generalized dimensions Dq and the singularity spectrum f(α) provided quantitative values that characterize the local scale properties of their membrane skeleton organization. Surface characterization was made using areal ISO 25178-2: 2012 topography parameters in combination with AFM topography measurement. The surface structure of human RBCs is complex with hierarchical substructures resulting from the organization of the erythrocyte membrane skeleton. The analysed AFM images confirm a multifractal nature of the surface that could be useful in histology to quantify human RBC architectural changes associated with different disease states. In case of very precise measurements when the red cell surface is not wrinkled even very fine differences can be uncovered as was shown for the erythrocytes treated with a very low dose of ionizing radiation.

The principal olfactory structures display Alzheimer's disease (AD) related pathology at early stages of the disease. Consequently, olfactory deficits are among the earliest symptoms. Reliable olfactory tests for accurate clinical diagnosis are rarely made. In addition, neuropathological analysis postmortem of olfactory structures is often not made. Therefore, the relationship between the clinical features and the underlying pathology is poorly defined. Traditionally, research into Alzheimer's disease has focused on the degeneration of cortical temporal projection neurons and cholinergic neurons. Recent evidence has demonstrated the neurodegeneration of interneuron populations in AD. This review provides an updated overview of the pathological involvement of interneuron populations in the human olfactory system in Alzheimer's disease.

Full Text Available DNA transposons are mobile elements with the ability to mobilize and transport genetic information between different chromosomal loci. Unfortunately, most transposons copies are currently inactivated, little is known about mariner elements in humans despite their role in the evolution of the human genome, even though the Hsmar2 transposon is associated to hotspots for homologous recombination involved in human genetic disorders as Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Prader-Willi/Angelman, and Williams syndromes. This manuscript describes the functional characterization of the human HSMAR2 transposase generated from fossil sequences and shows that the native HSMAR2 is active in human cells, but also in bacteria, with an efficiency similar to other mariner elements. We observe that the sub-cellular localization of HSMAR2 is dependent on the host cell type, and is cytotoxic when overexpressed in HeLa cells. Finally, we also demonstrate that the binding of HSMAR2 to its own ITRs is specific, and that the excision reaction leaves non-canonical footprints both in bacteria and eukaryotic cells.

The bacterial cells harbored within the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) outnumber the host’s cells by a factor of 10 and the genes encoded by the bacteria resident within the GIT outnumber their host’s genes by more than 100 times. These human digestive-tract associated microbes are referred to as the gut microbiome. The human gut microbiome and its role in both health and disease has been the subject of extensive research, establishing its involvement in human metabolism, nutrition, physi...

Environmental mercury continues to be of concern to public health advocates, both in the U.S. and abroad, and new research continues to be published. A recent analysis of potential health benefits of reduced mercury emissions has opened a new area of public health concern: adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, which could account for the bulk of the potential economic benefits. The authors were careful to include caveats about the uncertainties of such impacts, but they cited only a fraction of the applicable health effects literature. That literature includes studies of the potentially harmful ingredient (methylmercury, MeHg) in fish, as well as of a beneficial ingredient, omega-3 fatty acids or ''fish oils''. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently certified that some of these fat compounds that are primarily found in fish ''may be beneficial in reducing coronary heart disease''. This paper briefly summarizes and categorizes the extensive literature on both adverse and beneficial links between fish consumption and cardiovascular health, which are typically based on studies of selected groups of individuals (cohorts). Such studies tend to comprise the ''gold standard'' of epidemiology, but cohorts tend to exhibit a great deal of variability, in part because of the limited numbers of individuals involved and in part because of interactions with other dietary and lifestyle considerations. Note that eating fish will involve exposure to both the beneficial effects of fatty acids and the potentially harmful effects of contaminants like Hg or PCBs, all of which depend on the type of fish but tend to be correlated within a population. As a group, the cohort studies show that eating fish tends to reduce mortality, especially due to heart disease, for consumption rates up to about twice weekly, above which the benefits tend to level off. A Finnish cohort study showed increased mortality risks

This report provides a review and analysis of the research landscape for three diseases - Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis - that disproportionately afflict poor and remote populations with limited access to health services. It represents the work of the disease reference group on Chagas Disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis (DRG3) which was established to identify key research priorities through review of research evidence and input from stakeholders' consultations. The diseases, which are caused by related protozoan parasites, are described in terms of their epidemiology and diseases burden, clinical forms and pathogenesis, HIV coinfection, diagnosis, drugs and drug resistance, vaccines, vector control, and health-care interventions. Priority areas for research are identified based on criteria such as public health relevance, benefit and impact on poor populations and equity, and feasibility. The priorities are found in the areas of diagnostics, drugs, vector control, asymptomatic infection, economic analysis of treatment and vector control methods, and in some specific issues such as surveillance methods or transmission-blocking vaccines for particular diseases. This report will be useful to researchers, policy and decision-makers, funding bodies, implementation organizations, and civil society. This is one of ten disease and thematic reference group reports that have come out of the TDR Think Tank, all of which have contributed to the development of the Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty, available at: www.who.int/tdr/stewardship/global_report/en/index.html.

Full Text Available The human body is the residence of a large number of commensal (non-pathogenic and pathogenic microbial species that have co-evolved with the human genome, adaptive immune system and diet. With recent advances in DNA-based technologies, we initiated the exploration of bacterial gene functions and their role in human health. The main goal of the human microbiome project is to characterize the abundance, diversity and functionality of the genes present in all microorganisms that permanently live in different sites of the human body. The gut microbiota expresses over 3.3 million bacterial genes, while the human genome expresses only 20 thousand genes. Microbe gene-products exert pivotal functions via the regulation of food digestion and immune system development. Studies are confirming that manipulation of non-pathogenic bacterial strains in the host can stimulate the recovery of the immune response to pathogenic bacteria causing diseases. Different approaches, including the use of nutraceutics (prebiotics and probiotics as well as phages engineered with CRISPR/cas systems and quorum sensing systems have been developed as new therapies for controlling dysbiosis (alterations in microbial community and common diseases (e.g. diabetes and obesity. The designing and production of pharmaceuticals based on our own body’s microbiome is an emerging field and is rapidly growing to be fully explored in the near future. This review provides an outlook on recent findings on the human microbiomes, their impact on health and diseases, and on the development of targeted therapies.

Modern medicine would benefit from the pursuit of new, more specific and easier to implement diagnosis tools. In recent years, Raman scattering, surface-enhanced Raman scattering and fluorescence spectroscopy have proven to be successful diagnostic techniques for a wide range of diseases including atherosclerosis, kidney stones, bone diseases, diabetes, and a wide collection of neoplasms. Optical spectroscopy has several advantages over more traditional diagnostic methods (i.e., histopathology, quantitative PCR, etc.) such as faster data analysis, nonspecific sample preparation, nonspecific labels/reagents/antibodies usage requirements, and immediate on-site implementation. In the present work, label-free in vitro fluorescence and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy have been used to differentiate between blood cells of patients affected with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and those of healthy subjects. The SERS technique has also been applied to hemoglobin variants as well as to serum obtained from patients affected with chronic heart failure who positively or negatively responded to the seasonal influenza vaccine. We found that spectral ratios of the background fluorescence intensity that accompanies the SERS spectra of granulocytes serve as excellent markers for the presence of MPNs. In addition, we also found expression dysregulation of two hypoxia induced factor regulated genes, which correlates with our results obtained by SERS spectroscopy assay in MPN patients and supports the presence of the Warburg effect in MPNs. We hypothesize that SERS measures metabolic change in granulocytes through two possible mechanisms: (i) Changes in dielectric properties of the environment surrounding the silver-cell interface; and (ii) changes in flavin adenine dinucleotide concentrations, which in turn changes the relative contribution of the autofluorescence to the emission spectrum. These hypotheses are supported by SERS measurement of 2-deoxy

Full Text Available Human’s hand nail is analyzed to identify many diseases at early stage of diagnosis. Study of person hand nail color helps in identification of particular disease in healthcare domain. The proposed system guides in such scenario to take decision in disease diagnosis. The input to the proposed system is person nail image. The system will process an image of nail and extract features of nail which is used for disease diagnosis. Human nail consist of various features, out of which proposed system uses nail color changes for disease diagnosis. Here, first training set data is prepared using Weka tool from nail images of patients of specific diseases. A feature extracted from input nail image is compared with the training data set to get result. In this experiment we found that using color feature of nail image average 65% results are correctly matched with training set data during three tests conducted.

Neurodegenerative diseases are being modelled in-vitro using human patient-specific, induced pluripotent stem cells and transgenic embryonic stem cells to determine more about disease mechanisms, as well as to discover new treatments for patients. Current research in modelling Alzheimer’s disease......, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s disease using pluripotent stem cells is described, along with the advent of gene-editing, which has been the complimentary tool for the field. Current methods used to model these diseases are predominantly dependent on 2D cell culture methods. Outcomes reveal that only...... that includes studying more complex 3D cell cultures, as well as accelerating aging of the neurons, may help to yield stronger phenotypes in the cultured cells. Thus, the use and application of pluripotent stem cells for modelling disease have already shown to be a powerful approach for discovering more about...

Full Text Available Objective of the study was to review the anamnesis, pheno - and genotype in patients with rare chromosome disorders such as 9p deletion syndrome. Genetic methods of investigation (clinical and genealogical, cytogenetic, FISH- method, paraclinical and instrumental methods of examination were used. Karyotyping was performed by the G-method of differential staining of chromosomes. Only three cases of pathology were diagnosed in the Medical Genetics Center over the last 10 years. By anamnesis data nobody in the probands’ families had bad habits, was exposed to occupational hazards, took part in the elimination of the Chernobyl accident or lived in contaminated areas. Clinical signs of diseases have not been identified in probands’ parents. All probands had trigonocephaly, bilateral epicanthal folds, ocular hypertelorism, downslanting palpebral fissures, long philtrum, flat face and nasal bridge, low set ears with malformed auricles. Two patients of three ones had exophthalmos, contracture of the second and third fingers, abnormal external genitalia. In all three cases there was monosomy of chromosome 9 of critical segment p 24. Normal karyotypes were seen in all parents, so there were three cases of new mutations of 9p deletion syndrome. Retardation of physical, psycho-spech, mental development in proband with or without congenital anomalies requires medical genetic counseling in a specialized institution. Cases of reproductive loss in anamnesis require cytogenetic investigation of fetal membranes and amniotic fluid.

Humandisease diagnosis is a complicated process and requires high level of expertise. Any attempt of developing a web-based expert system dealing with humandisease diagnosis has to overcome various difficulties. This paper describes a project work aiming to develop a web-based fuzzy expert system for diagnosing humandiseases. Now a days fuzzy systems are being used successfully in an increasing number of application areas; they use linguistic rules to describe systems. This research project focuses on the research and development of a web-based clinical tool designed to improve the quality of the exchange of health information between health care professionals and patients. Practitioners can also use this web-based tool to corroborate diagnosis. The proposed system is experimented on various scenarios in order to evaluate it's performance. In all the cases, proposed system exhibits satisfactory results.

The scope of the HumanDisease Insight (HDI) database is not limited to researchers or physicians as it also provides basic information to non-professionals and creates disease awareness, thereby reducing the chances of patient suffering due to ignorance. HDI is a knowledge-based resource providing information on humandiseases to both scientists and the general public. Here, our mission is to provide a comprehensive humandisease database containing most of the available useful information, with extensive cross-referencing. HDI is a knowledge management system that acts as a central hub to access information about humandiseases and associated drugs and genes. In addition, HDI contains well-classified bioinformatics tools with helpful descriptions. These integrated bioinformatics tools enable researchers to annotate disease-specific genes and perform protein analysis, search for biomarkers and identify potential vaccine candidates. Eventually, these tools will facilitate the analysis of disease-associated data. The HDI provides two types of search capabilities and includes provisions for downloading, uploading and searching disease/gene/drug-related information. The logistical design of the HDI allows for regular updating. The database is designed to work best with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome and is freely accessible at http://humandiseaseinsight.com.

Highlights: •Human sperm cells synthesize NAADP. •NAADP-AM mediates [Ca{sup 2+}]{sub i} increases in human sperm in the absence of [Ca{sup 2+}]{sub o}. •Human sperm have two acidic compartments located in the head and midpiece. -- Abstract: Ca{sup 2+} signaling in spermatozoa plays a crucial role during processes such as capacitation and release of the acrosome, but the underlying molecular mechanisms still remain unclear. Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) is a potent Ca{sup 2+}-releasing second messenger in a variety of cellular processes. The presence of a NAADP synthesizing enzyme in sea urchin sperm has been previously reported, suggesting a possible role of NAADP in sperm Ca{sup 2+} signaling. In this work we used in vitro enzyme assays to show the presence of a novel NAADP synthesizing enzyme in human sperm, and to characterize its sensitivity to Ca{sup 2+} and pH. Ca{sup 2+} fluorescence imaging studies demonstrated that the permeable form of NAADP (NAADP-AM) induces intracellular [Ca{sup 2+}] increases in human sperm even in the absence of extracellular Ca{sup 2+}. Using LysoTracker®, a fluorescent probe that selectively accumulates in acidic compartments, we identified two such stores in human sperm cells. Their acidic nature was further confirmed by the reduction in staining intensity observed upon inhibition of the endo-lysosomal proton pump with Bafilomycin, or after lysosomal bursting with glycyl-L-phenylalanine-2-naphthylamide. The selective fluorescent NAADP analog, Ned-19, stained the same subcellular regions as LysoTracker®, suggesting that these stores are the targets of NAADP action.

Full Text Available Rattus norvegicus, the laboratory rat, has been a crucial model for studies of the environmental and genetic factors associated with humandiseases for over 150 years. It is the primary model organism for toxicology and pharmacology studies, and has features that make it the model of choice in many complex-disease studies. Since 1999, the Rat Genome Database (RGD; http://rgd.mcw.edu has been the premier resource for genomic, genetic, phenotype and strain data for the laboratory rat. The primary role of RGD is to curate rat data and validate orthologous relationships with human and mouse genes, and make these data available for incorporation into other major databases such as NCBI, Ensembl and UniProt. RGD also provides official nomenclature for rat genes, quantitative trait loci, strains and genetic markers, as well as unique identifiers. The RGD team adds enormous value to these basic data elements through functional and disease annotations, the analysis and visual presentation of pathways, and the integration of phenotype measurement data for strains used as disease models. Because much of the rat research community focuses on understanding humandiseases, RGD provides a number of datasets and software tools that allow users to easily explore and make disease-related connections among these datasets. RGD also provides comprehensive human and mouse data for comparative purposes, illustrating the value of the rat in translational research. This article introduces RGD and its suite of tools and datasets to researchers – within and beyond the rat community – who are particularly interested in leveraging rat-based insights to understand humandiseases.

ABSTRACT Rattus norvegicus, the laboratory rat, has been a crucial model for studies of the environmental and genetic factors associated with humandiseases for over 150 years. It is the primary model organism for toxicology and pharmacology studies, and has features that make it the model of choice in many complex-disease studies. Since 1999, the Rat Genome Database (RGD; http://rgd.mcw.edu) has been the premier resource for genomic, genetic, phenotype and strain data for the laboratory rat. The primary role of RGD is to curate rat data and validate orthologous relationships with human and mouse genes, and make these data available for incorporation into other major databases such as NCBI, Ensembl and UniProt. RGD also provides official nomenclature for rat genes, quantitative trait loci, strains and genetic markers, as well as unique identifiers. The RGD team adds enormous value to these basic data elements through functional and disease annotations, the analysis and visual presentation of pathways, and the integration of phenotype measurement data for strains used as disease models. Because much of the rat research community focuses on understanding humandiseases, RGD provides a number of datasets and software tools that allow users to easily explore and make disease-related connections among these datasets. RGD also provides comprehensive human and mouse data for comparative purposes, illustrating the value of the rat in translational research. This article introduces RGD and its suite of tools and datasets to researchers – within and beyond the rat community – who are particularly interested in leveraging rat-based insights to understand humandiseases. PMID:27736745

The human gut microbiota encompasses a densely populated ecosystem that provides essential functions for host development, immune maturation, and metabolism. Alterations to the gut microbiota have been observed in numerous diseases, including human metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and irritable bowel syndrome, and some animal experiments have suggested causality. However, few studies have validated causality in humans and the underlying mechanisms remain largely to be elucidated. We discuss how systems biology approaches combined with new experimental technologies may disentangle some of the mechanistic details in the complex interactions of diet, microbiota, and host metabolism and may provide testable hypotheses for advancing our current understanding of human-microbiota interaction.

Backyard poultry production systems (BPS) are an important and widespread form of poultry production. There is a common perception that biosecurity standards in BPS are generally poor and BPS are usually associated with animal diseases and zoonoses. In this study BPS were identified in the vicinity of six wetlands, having these a higher risk of presenting and introducing avian diseases such as HPAI and Newcastle disease, as defined by the national veterinary services, in to Chile's main poultry production area. BPS were characterized through a field questionnaire and the main areas covered by the survey were BPS structure, biosecurity and value chain. The BPS identified in this study share most characteristics on biosecurity, poultry management and product commercialization, but it was possible to identify a certain degree of variation within and among the study sites. BPS in Chile are similar to those in other regions, with a relatively small flock size (average 37 birds), a low level of biosecurity measures and lack of poultry disease management. Management findings include that most farmers used mixed/partial confinement, with low or no biosecurity and disease control measures in place. Eggs were the main output and were used mainly for home consumption or sale at local markets. Sick birds' treatment with drugs approved for other species or for human use could represent a risk to human health, owing to the possible presence of drug residues in poultry products. Despite the different structures of the poultry sector worldwide, BPS can play a major role in disease maintenance and spread because its management conditions characteristics and the lack of animal health services adapted to these production systems. This should be an alert message to the veterinary authorities to improve coverage of veterinary assistance and surveillance activities in backyard poultry production.

Full Text Available Aptamers have a promising role in the field of life science and have been extensively researched for application as analytical tools, therapeutic agents and as vehicles for targeted drug delivery. Compared with RNA aptamers, DNA aptamers have inherent advantages in stability and facility of generation and synthesis. To better understand the specific potential of DNA aptamers, an overview of the progress in the generation and application of DNA aptamers in humandisease diagnosis and therapy are presented in this review. Special attention is given to researches that are relatively close to practical application. DNA aptamers are expected to have great potential in the diagnosis and treatment of humandiseases.

Over the past fifteen years, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying humandisease has flourished in large part due to the discovery of gene mutations linked with membrane ion channels and transporters. In fact, ion channel defects ("channelopathies" - the focus of this review series) have been associated with a spectrum of serious humandisease phenotypes including cystic fibrosis, cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, skeletal muscle defects, and neurological disorders. However, we now know that humandisease, particularly excitable cell disease, may be caused by defects in non-ion channel polypeptides including in cellular components residing well beneath the plasma membrane. For example, over the past few years, a new class of potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias has been linked with cytoplasmic proteins that include sub-membrane adapters such as ankyrin-B (ANK2),ankyrin-G (ANK3), and alpha-1 syntrophin, membrane coat proteins including caveolin-3 (CAV3), signaling platforms including yotiao (AKAPg), and cardiac enzymes (GPD1L). The focus of this review is to detail the exciting role of lamins, yet another class of gene products that have provided elegant new insight into humandisease.

For a long time, scientists have tried to describe disorders just by genetic or environmental factors. However, the role of epigenetics in humandiseases has been considered from a half of century ago. In the last decade, this subject has attracted many interests, especially in complicated disorders such as behavior plasticity, memory, cancer, autoimmune disease, and addiction as well as neurodegenerative and psychological disorders. This review first explains the history and classification o...

This chapter reviews the current treatment of chronic and neoplastic HPV-associated conditions and the development of novel therapeutic approaches. Surgical excision of HPV-associated lower genital tract neoplasia is very successful but largely depends on secondary prevention programmes for identification of disease. Only high-risk HPV-driven chronic, preneoplastic lesions and some very early cancers cannot be successfully treated by surgical procedures alone. Chemoradiation therapy of cervical cancer contributes to the 66–79% cervical cancer survival at 5 years. Outlook for those patients with persistent or recurrent cervical cancer following treatment is very poor. Topical agents such as imiquimod (immune response modifier), cidofovir (inhibition of viral replication; induction apoptosis) or photodynamic therapy (direct damage of tumour and augmentation of anti-tumour immunity) have all shown some useful efficacy (~50–60%) in treatment of high grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia. Provider administered treatments of genital warts include cryotherapy, trichloracetic acid, or surgical removal which has the highest primary clearance rate. Patient applied therapies include podophyllotoxin and imiquimod. Recurrence after “successful” treatment is 30–40%. Further improvements could derive from a rational combination of current therapy with new drugs targeting molecular pathways mediated by HPV in cancer. Small molecule inhibitors targeting the DNA binding activities of HPV E1/E2 or the anti-apoptotic consequences of E6/E7 oncogenes are in preclinical development. Proteasome and histone deacetylase inhibitors, which can enhance apoptosis in HPV positive tumour cells, are being tested in early clinical trials. Chronic high-risk HPV infection/neoplasia is characterised by systemic and/or local immune suppressive regulatory or escape factors. Recently two E6/E7 vaccines have shown some clinical efficacy in high grade VIN patients and this correlated with strong

Full Text Available Disease modeling with human pluripotent stem cells has come into the public spotlight with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2012 to Drs John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent. This discovery has opened the door for the generation of pluripotent stem cells from individuals with disease and the differentiation of these cells into somatic cell types for the study of disease pathophysiology. The emergence of genome-editing technology over the past few years has made it feasible to generate and investigate human cellular disease models with even greater speed and efficiency. Here, recent technological advances in genome editing, and its utility in human biology and disease studies, are reviewed.

Disease modeling with human pluripotent stem cells has come into the public spotlight with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2012 to Drs John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent. This discovery has opened the door for the generation of pluripotent stem cells from individuals with disease and the differentiation of these cells into somatic cell types for the study of disease pathophysiology. The emergence of genome-editing technology over the past few years has made it feasible to generate and investigate human cellular disease models with even greater speed and efficiency. Here, recent technological advances in genome editing, and its utility in human biology and disease studies, are reviewed.

Formins are cytoskeleton regulating proteins characterized by a common FH2 structural domain. As key players in the assembly of actin filaments, formins direct dynamic cytoskeletal processes that influence cell shape, movement and adhesion. The large number of formin genes, fifteen in the human, suggests distinct tasks and expression patterns for individual family members, in addition to overlapping functions. Several formins have been associated with invasive cell properties in experimental models, linking them to cancer biology. One example is FMNL1, which is considered to be a leukocyte formin and is known to be overexpressed in lymphomas. Studies on FMNL1 and many other formins have been hampered by a lack of research tools, especially antibodies suitable for staining paraffin-embedded formalin-fixed tissues. Here we characterize, using bioinformatics tools and a validated antibody, the expression pattern of FMNL1 in human tissues and study its subcellular distribution. Our results indicate that FMNL1 expression is not restricted to hematopoietic tissues and that neoexpression of FMNL1 can be seen in epithelial cancer. PMID:24700756

The authors have characterized the muscarinic cholinergic receptor subtypes in human peripheral lung membranes using the selective muscarinic antagonist (/sup 3/H)pirenzepine ((/sup 3/H)PZ) and the classical muscarinic antagonist (/sup 3/H)(-)-quinuclidinyl benzilate. High-affinity binding with pharmacologic specificity was demonstrated for both radioligands. The high affinity Kd for (/sup 3/H)PZ binding determined from saturation isotherms was 5.6 nM, and the Kd for (/sup 3/H)(-)-quinuclidinyl benzilate binding was 14.3 pM. Approximately 62% of the total muscarinic binding sites in human peripheral lung bind (/sup 3/H)PZ with high affinity. There was no significant effect of the guanine nucleotide, guanyl-5'-yl imidodiphosphate, on the inhibition of (/sup 3/H)(-)-quinyclidinyl benzilate binding by the muscarinic agonist carbachol in peripheral lung membranes. If the muscarinic receptor with high affinity for PZ has an important role in bronchoconstriction, its characterization could result in the development of more selective bronchodilators.

90K is a secreted protein thought to be involved in the body's defense against pathogens and cancer. To elucidate its transcriptional regulation, the promoter of human 90K (HGMW-approved symbol LGAL S3BP) was isolated and characterized. Analysis of the 3. 3-kb 5'-flanking region revealed that it ......90K is a secreted protein thought to be involved in the body's defense against pathogens and cancer. To elucidate its transcriptional regulation, the promoter of human 90K (HGMW-approved symbol LGAL S3BP) was isolated and characterized. Analysis of the 3. 3-kb 5'-flanking region revealed...... that it is a TATA-less promoter, but neither GC-rich nor dependent on SP1 sites. RNase protection assays detected one major transcription start site (+1) and several minor transcription start sites upstream and downstream. Deletion studies defined a minimal promoter (-103 --> -49) and indirectly suggested positive...... synergism between different elements within it. Consistent with the proposed function of 90K, its promoter activity could be stimulated by poly(I). poly(C), mimicking viral infection. Two regions mediating induction by poly(I). poly(C) (-171 --> -112, -32 --> 46) were identified by deletion mutants. A small...

Although transcriptional and posttranscriptional events are detected in RNA-Seq data from second-generation sequencing, full-length mRNA isoforms are not captured. On the other hand, third-generation sequencing, which yields much longer reads, has current limitations of lower raw accuracy and throughput. Here, we combine second-generation sequencing and third-generation sequencing with a custom-designed method for isoform identification and quantification to generate a high-confidence isoform dataset for human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). We report 8,084 RefSeq-annotated isoforms detected as full-length and an additional 5,459 isoforms predicted through statistical inference. Over one-third of these are novel isoforms, including 273 RNAs from gene loci that have not previously been identified. Further characterization of the novel loci indicates that a subset is expressed in pluripotent cells but not in diverse fetal and adult tissues; moreover, their reduced expression perturbs the network of pluripotency-associated genes. Results suggest that gene identification, even in well-characterizedhuman cell lines and tissues, is likely far from complete.

Full Text Available Tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase (TPST, the enzyme responsible for the sulfation of tyrosine residues, has been identified and characterized in submandibular salivary glands previously (William et al. Arch Biochem Biophys 338: 90-96. Tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase catalyses the sulfation of a variety of secretory and membrane proteins and is believed to be present only in the cell. In the present study, this enzyme was identified for the first time in human saliva. Analysis of human saliva and parotid saliva for the presence of tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase revealed tyrosine sulfating activity displayed by both whole saliva and parotid saliva at pH optimum of 6.8. In contrast to tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase isolated from submandibular salivary glands, salivary enzyme does not require the presence of Triton X-100, NaF and 5'AMP for maximal activity. Similar to the submandibular TPST, the enzyme from saliva also required MnCl2 for its activity. Maximum TPST activity was observed at 20mM MnCl2. The enzyme from saliva was immunoprecipitated and purified by immunoaffinity column using anti-TPST antibody. Affinity purified salivary TPST showed a single band of 50-54 kDa. This study is the first report characterizing a tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase in a secretory fluid.

Kupffer cells (KC) are the resident macrophages of the liver and represent about 80% of the total fixed macrophage population. They are involved in disease states such as endotoxin shock, alcoholic liver diseases and other toxic-induced liver injury. They release physiologically active substances such as eicosanoids and inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, TNFalpha), and produce free radical species. Thus, KC are attractive targets for anti-inflammatory therapies and potential candidates responsible for differences in inflammation in liver disease seen between different individuals. However, to perform parallel in vitro experiments with KC from different donors a suitable method for conservation of KC would be necessary. Therefore, the present study evaluated, whether rat and human KC can be frozen, stored and recovered without losing their functional integrity. Rat and human KC were isolated and either cultured under standard conditions (fresh KC) or cryopreserved in special freezing medium (cryopreserved KC). At least 24 h later, cryopreserved KC were thawed, brought into suspension and seeded in the same density as fresh cells for subsequent experiments. Viability of cultured KC was analyzed by trypan blue exclusion. LPS (or PBS as control) stimulation was performed at different time points and cytokine release was analyzed with IL-6 and TNFalpha ELISAs, respectively. Phagocytic capacity was investigated by using a specific phagocytosis assay and FACS analysis. The recovery rate after thawing was around 57% for rat and around 65% for human cryopreserved KC. The results indicate, that KC can successfully be cryopreserved with an adequate recovery rate of viable cells. The properties of fresh and frozen KC can also be compared after thawing. Freshly isolated and cryopreserved cultured KC showed near-normal morphology and did not differ in the cultivation profiles over a period of 72 h. One to three days after seeding, frozen rat or human KC also retained inducible

The human prion diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, have captivated our imaginations since their discovery in the Fore linguistic group in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s. The mysterious and poorly understood "infectious protein" has become somewhat of a household name in many regions across the globe. From bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly identified as mad cow disease, to endocannibalism, media outlets have capitalized on these devastatingly fatal neurological conditions. Interestingly, since their discovery, there have been more than 492 incidents of iatrogenic transmission of prion diseases, largely resulting from prion-contaminated growth hormone and dura mater grafts. Although fewer than 9 cases of probable iatrogenic neurosurgical cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) have been reported worldwide, the likelihood of some missed cases and the potential for prion transmission by neurosurgery create considerable concern. Laboratory studies indicate that standard decontamination and sterilization procedures may be insufficient to completely remove infectivity from prion-contaminated instruments. In this unfortunate event, the instruments may transmit the prion disease to others. Much caution therefore should be taken in the absence of strong evidence against the presence of a prion disease in a neurosurgical patient. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have devised risk assessment and decontamination protocols for the prevention of iatrogenic transmission of the prion diseases, incidents of possible exposure to prions have unfortunately occurred in the United States. In this article, the authors outline the historical discoveries that led from kuru to the identification and isolation of the pathological prion proteins in addition to providing a brief description of human prion diseases and iatrogenic forms of CJD, a brief history of prion disease nosocomial transmission

Many factors affect the integrity of messenger RNA from human autopsy tissues including postmortem interval (PMI) between death and tissue preservation and the pre-mortem agonal and disease states. In this communication, we describe RNA isolation and characterization of 389 samples from 18 different tissues from elderly donors who were participants in a rapid whole-body autopsy program located in Sun City, Arizona ( www.brainandbodydonationprogram.org ). Most tissues were collected within a PMI of 2-6 h (median 3.15 h; N = 455), but for this study, tissue from cases with longer PMIs (1.25-29.25 h) were included. RNA quality was assessed by RNA integrity number (RIN) and total yield (ng RNA/mg tissue). RIN correlated with PMI for heart (r = -0.531, p = 0.009) and liver (r = -558, p = 0.0017), while RNA yield correlated with PMI for colon (r = -485, p = 0.016) and skin (r = -0.460, p = 0.031). RNAs with the lowest integrity were from skin and cervix where 22.7 and 31.4 % of samples respectively failed to produce intact RNA; by contrast all samples from esophagus, lymph node, jejunum, lung, stomach, submandibular gland and kidney produced RNA with measurable RINs. Expression levels in heart RNA of 4 common housekeeping normalization genes showed significant correlations of Ct values with RIN, but only one gene, glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate dehydrogenase, showed a correlation of Ct with PMI. There were no correlations between RIN values obtained for liver, adrenal, cervix, esophagus and lymph node and those obtained from corresponding brain samples. We show that high quality RNA can be produced from most human autopsy tissues, though with significant differences between tissues and donors. The RNA stability and yield did not depend solely on PMI; other undetermined factors are involved, but these do not include the age of the donor.

Background: Human liver has an unusual sensitivity to radiation that limits its use in cancer therapy or in preconditioning for hepatocyte transplantation. Because the characteristic veno-occlusive lesions of radiation-induced liver disease do not occur in rodents, there has been no experimental model to investigate the limits of safe radiation therapy or explore the pathogenesis of hepatic veno-occlusive disease. Methods and Materials: We performed a dose-escalation study in a primate, the cynomolgus monkey, using hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy in 13 animals. Results: At doses ≥40 Gy, animals developed a systemic syndrome resembling human radiation-induced liver disease, consisting of decreased albumin, elevated alkaline phosphatase, loss of appetite, ascites, and normal bilirubin. Higher radiation doses were lethal, causing severe disease that required euthanasia approximately 10 weeks after radiation. Even at lower doses in which radiation-induced liver disease was mild or nonexistent, latent and significant injury to hepatocytes was demonstrated by asialoglycoprotein-mediated functional imaging. These monkeys developed hepatic failure with encephalopathy when they received parenteral nutrition containing high concentrations of glucose. Histologically, livers showed central obstruction via an unusual intimal swelling that progressed to central fibrosis. Conclusions: The cynomolgus monkey, as the first animal model of human veno-occlusive radiation-induced liver disease, provides a resource for characterizing the early changes and pathogenesis of venocclusion, for establishing nonlethal therapeutic dosages, and for examining experimental therapies to minimize radiation injury.

Full Text Available Abstract Perturbations in lipid metabolism characterize many of the chronic diseases currently plaguing our society, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Thus interventions that target plasma lipid levels remain a primary goal to manage these diseases. The determinants of plasma lipid levels are multi-factorial, consisting of both genetic and lifestyle components. Recent evidence indicates that fatty acid desaturases have an important role in defining plasma and tissue lipid profiles. This review will highlight the current state-of-knowledge regarding three desaturases (Scd-1, Fads1 and Fads2 and their potential roles in disease onset and development. Although research in rodent models has provided invaluable insight into the regulation and functions of these desaturases, the extent to which murine research can be translated to humans remains unclear. Evidence emerging from human-based research demonstrates that genetic variation in human desaturase genes affects enzyme activity and, consequently, disease risk factors. Moreover, this genetic variation may have a trans-generational effect via breastfeeding. Therefore inter-individual variation in desaturase function is attributed to both genetic and lifestyle components. As such, population-based research regarding the role of desaturases on disease risk is challenged by this complex gene-lifestyle paradigm. Unravelling the contribution of each component is paramount for understanding the inter-individual variation that exists in plasma lipid profiles, and will provide crucial information to develop personalized strategies to improve health management.

With the general decline of pharmaceutical research productivity,there are concerns that many components of the drug discovery process need to be redesigned and optimized.For example,the human immortalized cell lines or animal primary cells commonly used in traditional drug screening may not faithfully recapitulate the pathological mechanisms of humandiseases,leading to biases in assays,targets,or compounds that do not effectively address disease mechanisms.Recent advances in stem cell research,especially in the development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology,provide a new paradigm for drug screening by permitting the use of human cells with the same genetic makeup as the patients without the typical quantity constraints associated with patient primary cells.In this article,we will review the progress made to date on cellular disease models using human stem cells,with a focus on patient-specific iPSCs for neurological diseases.We will discuss the key challenges and the factors that associated with the success of using stem cell models for drug discovery through examples from monogenic diseases,diseases with various known genetic components,and complex diseases caused by a combination of genetic,environmental and other factors.

With the general decline of pharmaceutical research productivity, there are concerns that many components of the drug discovery process need to be redesigned and optimized. For example, the human immortalized cell lines or animal primary cells commonly used in traditional drug screening may not faithfully recapitulate the pathological mechanisms of humandiseases, leading to biases in assays, targets, or compounds that do not effectively address disease mechanisms. Recent advances in stem cell research, especially in the development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, provide a new paradigm for drug screening by permitting the use of human cells with the same genetic makeup as the patients without the typical quantity constraints associated with patient primary cells. In this article, we will review the progress made to date on cellular disease models using human stem cells, with a focus on patient-specific iPSCs for neurological diseases. We will discuss the key challenges and the factors that associated with the success of using stem cell models for drug discovery through examples from monogenic diseases, diseases with various known genetic components, and complex diseases caused by a combination of genetic, environmental and other factors.

Bombyx mori (silkworm) is the most famous lepidopteran in Japan. B. mori has long been used in the silk industry and also as a model insect for agricultural research. In recent years, B. mori has attracted interest in its potential for use in pathological analysis of model animals. For example, the human macular carotenoid transporter was discovered using information of B. mori carotenoid transporter derived from yellow-cocoon strain. The B. mori carotenoid transport system is useful in human studies. To develop a humandisease model, we characterized the human homologs of B. mori, and by constructing KAIKO functional annotation pipeline, and to analyze gene expression profile of a unique B. mori mutant strain using microarray analysis. As a result, we identified a novel molecular network involved in Parkinson's disease. Here we describe the potential use of a spontaneous mutant silkworm strain as a humandisease model. We also summarize recent progress in the application of genomic information for annotation of human homologs in B. mori. The B. mori mutant will provide a clue to pathological mechanisms, and the findings will be helpful for the development of therapies and for medical drug discovery.

Full Text Available CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Over the last few years, different models for human skin equivalent reconstructed in vitro (HSERIV have been reported for clinical usage and applications in research for the pharmaceutical industry. Before release for routine use as human skin replacements, HSERIV models need to be tested regarding their similarity with in vivo skin, using morphological (architectural and immunohistochemical (functional analyses. A model for HSERIV has been developed in our hospital, and our aim here was to further characterize its immunoarchitectural features by comparing them with human skin, before it can be tested for clinical use, e.g. for severe burns or wounds, whenever ancillary methods are not indicated. DESIGN AND SETTING: Experimental laboratory study, in the Skin Cell Culture Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, Universidade Estadual de Campinas. METHODS: Histological sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin, Masson's trichrome for collagen fibers, periodic acid-Schiff reagent for basement membrane and glycogen, Weigert-Van Gieson for elastic fibers and Fontana-Masson for melanocytes. Immunohistochemistry was used to localize cytokeratins (broad spectrum of molecular weight, AE1/AE3, high molecular weight cytokeratins (34βE12, low molecular weight cytokeratins (35βH11, cytokeratins 7 and 20, vimentin, S-100 protein (for melanocytic and dendritic cells, CD68 (KP1, histiocytes and CD34 (QBend, endothelium. RESULTS: Histology revealed satisfactory similarity between HSERIV and in vivo skin. Immunohistochemical analysis on HSERIV demonstrated that the marker pattern was similar to what is generally present in human skin in vivo. CONCLUSION: HSERIV is morphologically and functionally compatible with human skin observed in vivo.

Molecular imaging aims to assess non-invasively disease-specific biological and molecular processes in animal models and humans in vivo. Apart from precise anatomical localisation and quantification, the most intriguing advantage of such imaging is the opportunity it provides to investigate the time course (dynamics) of disease-specific molecular events in the intact organism. Further, molecular imaging can be used to address basic scientific questions, e.g. transcriptional regulation, signal transduction or protein/protein interaction, and will be essential in developing treatment strategies based on gene therapy. Most importantly, molecular imaging is a key technology in translational research, helping to develop experimental protocols which may later be applied to human patients. Over the past 20 years, imaging based on positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been employed for the assessment and ''phenotyping'' of various neurological diseases, including cerebral ischaemia, neurodegeneration and brain gliomas. While in the past neuro-anatomical studies had to be performed post mortem, molecular imaging has ushered in the era of in vivo functional neuro-anatomy by allowing neuroscience to image structure, function, metabolism and molecular processes of the central nervous system in vivo in both health and disease. Recently, PET and MRI have been successfully utilised together in the non-invasive assessment of gene transfer and gene therapy in humans. To assess the efficiency of gene transfer, the same markers are being used in animals and humans, and have been applied for phenotyping humandisease. Here, we review the imaging hallmarks of focal and disseminated neurological diseases, such as cerebral ischaemia, neurodegeneration and glioblastoma multiforme, as well as the attempts to translate gene therapy's experimental knowledge into clinical applications and the way in which this process is being

Full Text Available tator cuff tears are common soft tissue injuries of the musculoskeletal system that heal by formation of repair tissue and may lead to high retear rates and joint dysfunction. In particular, tissue from chronic, large tendon tears is of such degenerative nature that it may be prone to retear after surgical repair. Besides several biomechanical approaches, biologically based strategies such as application of growth factors may be promising for increasing cell activity and production of extracellular tendon matrix at the tendon-to-bone unit. As a precondition for subsequent experimental growth factor application, the aim of the present study was to establish and characterize a human rotator cuff tendon cell culture.Long head biceps (LHB- and supraspinatus muscle (SSP- tendon samples from donor patients undergoing shoulder surgery were cultivated and examined at the RNA level for expression of collagen type-I, -II and -III, biglycan, decorin, tenascin-C, aggrecan, osteocalcin, tenomodulin and scleraxis (by Real-time PCR. Finally, results were compared to chondrocytes and osteoblasts as control cells.An expression pattern was found which may reflect a human rotator cuff tenocyte-like cell culture. Both SSP and LHB tenocyte-like cells differed from chondrocyte cell cultures in terms of reduced expression of collagen type-II (p≤0.05 and decorin while higher levels of collagen type-I were seen (p≤0.05. With respect to osteoblasts, tenocyte-like cells expressed lower levels of osteocalcin (p≤0.05 as well as tenascin C, biglycan and collagen type-III. Expression of scleraxis, tenomodulin and aggrecan was similar between all cell types.This study represents a characterization of tenocyte-like cells from the human rotator cuff as close as possible. It helps analyzing their biological properties and allows further studies to improve production of tendon matrix and osteofibroblastic integration at the tendon-bone unit following tendon repair.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from an allogeneic donor is an effective form of cancer immunotherapy, especially for acute leukemias. HSCT is however frequently complicated by the occurrence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Immunocompromised mice infused with human T cells often develop a clinical syndrome resembling human GVHD (xenogeneic or X-GVHD). Herein, we describe a method for inducing X-GVHD in a highly reproducible manner. Given the human nature of immune effectors, this xenogeneic model can be routinely adopted for screening the efficacy of new treatments for GVHD.

Full Text Available Nuclear genes encode most mitochondrial proteins, and their mutations cause diverse and debilitating clinical disorders. To date, 1,200 of these mitochondrial genes have been recorded, while no standardized catalog exists of the associated clinical phenotypes. Such a catalog would be useful to develop methods to analyze human phenotypic data, to determine genotype-phenotype relations among many genes and diseases, and to support the clinical diagnosis of mitochondrial disorders. Here we establish a clinical phenotype catalog of 174 mitochondrial disease genes and study associations of diseases and genes. Phenotypic features such as clinical signs and symptoms were manually annotated from full-text medical articles and classified based on the hierarchical MeSH ontology. This classification of phenotypic features of each gene allowed for the comparison of diseases between different genes. In turn, we were then able to measure the phenotypic associations of disease genes for which we calculated a quantitative value that is based on their shared phenotypic features. The results showed that genes sharing more similar phenotypes have a stronger tendency for functional interactions, proving the usefulness of phenotype similarity values in disease gene network analysis. We then constructed a functional network of mitochondrial genes and discovered a higher connectivity for non-disease than for disease genes, and a tendency of disease genes to interact with each other. Utilizing these differences, we propose 168 candidate genes that resemble the characteristic interaction patterns of mitochondrial disease genes. Through their network associations, the candidates are further prioritized for the study of specific disorders such as optic neuropathies and Parkinson disease. Most mitochondrial disease phenotypes involve several clinical categories including neurologic, metabolic, and gastrointestinal disorders, which might indicate the effects of gene defects

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, characterized by two pathological hallmarks: amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease posits that the excessive accumulation of amyloid-β peptide leads to neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau. However, to date, no single disease model has serially linked these two pathological events using human neuronal cells. Mouse models with familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) mutations exhibit amyloid-β-induced synaptic and memory deficits but they do not fully recapitulate other key pathological events of Alzheimer's disease, including distinct neurofibrillary tangle pathology. Human neurons derived from Alzheimer's disease patients have shown elevated levels of toxic amyloid-β species and phosphorylated tau but did not demonstrate amyloid-β plaques or neurofibrillary tangles. Here we report that FAD mutations in β-amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 are able to induce robust extracellular deposition of amyloid-β, including amyloid-β plaques, in a human neural stem-cell-derived three-dimensional (3D) culture system. More importantly, the 3D-differentiated neuronal cells expressing FAD mutations exhibited high levels of detergent-resistant, silver-positive aggregates of phosphorylated tau in the soma and neurites, as well as filamentous tau, as detected by immunoelectron microscopy. Inhibition of amyloid-β generation with β- or γ-secretase inhibitors not only decreased amyloid-β pathology, but also attenuated tauopathy. We also found that glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) regulated amyloid-β-mediated tau phosphorylation. We have successfully recapitulated amyloid-β and tau pathology in a single 3D human neural cell culture system. Our unique strategy for recapitulating Alzheimer's disease pathology in a 3D neural cell culture model should also serve to facilitate the development of more precise human neural cell

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) and related genetic elements form 504 distinct families and occupy ~8% of human genome. Recent success of high-throughput experimental technologies facilitated understanding functional impact of HERVs for molecular machinery of human cells. HERVs encode active retroviral proteins, which may exert important physiological functions in the body, but also may be involved in the progression of cancer and numerous human autoimmune, neurological and infectious diseases. The spectrum of related malignancies includes, but not limits to, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, lupus, schizophrenia, multiple cancer types and HIV. In addition, HERVs regulate expression of the neighboring host genes and modify genomic regulatory landscape, e.g., by providing regulatory modules like transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). Indeed, recent bioinformatic profiling identified ~110,000 regulatory active HERV elements, which formed at least ~320,000 human TFBS. These and other peculiarities of HERVs might have played an important role in human evolution and speciation. In this paper, we focus on the current progress in understanding of normal and pathological molecular niches of HERVs, on their implications in human evolution, normal physiology and disease. We also review the available databases dealing with various aspects of HERV genetics.

Full Text Available Ubiquitin-specific processing enzyme 22 (USP22 plays a direct role in regulating cell cycle, and its overexpression has been reported to be involved in tumor progression. However, little is known about the regulation of USP22 transcription. In this study, we cloned and characterized the human USP22 promoter. Using 5' RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends analysis, the transcriptional initiation site was identified. Promoter deletion analysis showed that the sequence between -210 and -7 contains the basal promoter for USP22 in human fibroblast and tumor cells. Surprisingly, mutations in a putative Sp1 binding site immediately upstream of the USP22 transcriptional start site (-13 to -7 resulted in a significant induction of promoter activity. Further study revealed that Sp1 binds to this site in human normal fibroblast cells, and treatment with the Sp1 inhibitor mithramycin A led to a marked increase in USP22 transcript levels. Forced expression of exogenous Sp1 repressed the USP22 promoter activity in HeLa cells. In contrast, knockdown of Sp1 enhanced USP22 promoter activity and mRNA levels. These data suggest that Sp1 is a crucial regulator of USP22 transcription.

Recombinant DNA techniques provide new approaches to the diagnosis and analysis of inherited humandiseases associated with mental retardation, such as Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, phenylketonauria, the Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and those associated with deletions or duplications of subchromosomal regions. (Author/CL)

Filamentous basidiomycetes (BM) are common environmental fungi that have recently emerged as important human pathogens, inciting a wide array of clinical manifestations that include allergic and invasive diseases. We reviewed 218 reported global cases of BM fungi. The most common etiologic agent was

Dendritic cells (DCs) are key initiators and regulators of the immune response. The development of the DC lineage and their subsets requires an orchestrated regulation of their transcriptional program. Gata1, a transcription factor expressed in several hematopoietic cell lineages, has been recently reported to be required for mouse DC development and function. In humans, GATA1 is involved in the lineage separation between monocyte-derived DCs and Langerhans cells (LC) and loss of GATA1 results in differentiation arrest at the monocyte stage. The hematopoietic GATA factors (i.e. Gata1, Gata2, Gata3) are known to regulate each other's expression and to function consecutively throughout lineage commitment (so-called GATA switch). In humans, mutations in GATA2 are causative of MonoMAC disease, a human immunodeficiency syndrome characterized by loss of DCs, monocytes, B and NK cells. However, additional data on the expression of hematopoietic GATA factors in the DC lineage is missing. In this study, we have characterized the expression of hematopoietic GATA factors in murine and human DCs and their expression dynamics upon TLR stimulation. We found that all hematopoietic GATA factors are expressed in DCs, but identified species-specific differences in the relative expression of each GATA factor, and how their expression fluctuates upon stimulation.

Lyme disease is a complex immune-mediated multi-system disorder that is infectious in origin and inflammatory or "rheumatic" in expression. Through its epidemiologic characteristics, large numbers of a seasonally synchronized patient population are readily available for prospective study. Lyme disease has a known clinical onset ("zero time"), marked by the characteristic expanding skin lesion, erythema chronicum migrans, and a clearly defined pre-articular phase. At least some manifestations of the disorder are responsive to antibiotics, and the causative agent--a spirochete--is now known. These advantages make Lyme disease unique as a human model for an infectious etiology of rheumatic disease. PMID:6516449

The pregnane X receptor (PXR) and constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) are two members of the nuclear receptor superfamily that regulate a broad range of genes involved in drug metabolism and transport. A variety of naturally occurring compounds present in herbal medicines were identified as ligands of PXR and CAR. Recently, accumulative evidences have revealed the PXR- and CAR-mediated herbal effect against multiple humandiseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), cholestatic liver disease, and jaundice. The current review summarized the recent progress in identifying the expanding libraries of herbal medicine as ligands for PXR and CAR. Moreover, the potential for herbal medicines as promising therapeutic agents which were mainly regulated through PXR/CAR signaling pathways was also discussed. The discovery of herbal medicines as modulators of PXR and CAR, and their PXR- and CAR-mediated effect on humandiseases will provide a basis for rational drug design, and eventually be explored as a novel therapeutic approach against humandiseases. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Xenobiotic nuclear receptors: New Tricks for An Old Dog, edited by Dr. Wen Xie.

Full Text Available The hepatitis E virus is ubiquitous in all parts of the world where pig production exists. The infection occurs in several animal species and its course is mostly asymptomatic. Viral strains isolated from pigs and humans are genetically similar, which indicates a potential zoonotic nature of the disease, and the possibility that pigs, and perhaps also other species of animals diseased with viral hepatitis E are a source of infection to humans. The pig hepatitis E virus, which is similar to the hepatitis E virus in humans, was isolated and described for the first time in the USA in 1997. The infection of pigs with hepatitis E virus occurs through faeco-oral transmission, by ingestion of feed and water contaminated with the virus, or through direct contact between infected and healthy animals. The pathogenesis of this infection in pigs differs from its pathogenesis in humans and it has not been sufficiently examined in all its aspects. Even though viral hepatitis E in pigs has been described as a subclinical disease, some authors describe changes in the concentration of certain biochemical parameters in blood serum of the infected pigs. Histologically, a mild to moderate lymphotic-plasma cellular infiltration is observed in livers of infected pigs, as well as focal areas of hepatocyte necrosis. Viral hepatitis E is an endemic disease of humans in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In developed countries, hepatitis E sporadically occurs in humans, but it is becoming of increasing importance in particular in Japan, North America, and Europe, because the populations of these areas travel extensively to the endemic regions or as a result of the consumption of thermally untreated meat of wild boar and products made from thermally untreated meat. Pork products can be contaminated with hepatitis E virus. Further proof that indicates the zoonotic potential of this virus and places this diseases among the group of professional diseases of farmers and

Since the early 1950s, the dominant paradigm in the human genetics of infectious diseases postulates that rare monogenic immunodeficiencies confer vulnerability to multiple infectious diseases (one gene, multiple infections), whereas common infections are associated with the polygenic inheritance of multiple susceptibility genes (one infection, multiple genes). Recent studies, since 1996 in particular, have challenged this view. A newly recognised group of primary immunodeficiencies predisposing the individual to a principal or single type of infection is emerging. In parallel, several common infections have been shown to reflect the inheritance of one major susceptibility gene, at least in some populations. This novel causal relationship (one gene, one infection) blurs the distinction between patient-based Mendelian genetics and population-based complex genetics, and provides a unified conceptual frame for exploring the molecular genetic basis of infectious diseases in humans. PMID:17255931

Bridging the knowing-doing gap in the prevention of chronic disease requires deep appreciation and understanding of the complexities inherent in behavioral change. Strategies that have relied exclusively on the implementation of evidence-based data have not yielded the desired progress. The tools of human-centered design, used in conjunction with evidence-based data, hold much promise in providing an optimal approach for advancing disease prevention efforts. Directing the focus toward wide-scale education and application of human-centered design techniques among healthcare professionals will rapidly multiply their effective ability to bring the kind of substantial results in disease prevention that have eluded the healthcare industry for decades. This, in turn, would increase the likelihood of prevention by design.

Increased plasma triglycerides concentrations are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Numerous studies support a reproducible genetic association between two minor haplotypes in the human apolipoprotein A5 gene (APOA5) and increased plasma triglyceride concentrations. We thus sought to investigate the effect of these minor haplotypes (APOA5*2 and APOA5*3) on ApoAV plasma levels through the precise insertion of single-copy intact APOA5 haplotypes at a targeted location in the mouse genome. While we found no difference in the amount of human plasma ApoAV in mice containing the common APOA5*1 and minor APOA5*2 haplotype, the introduction of the single APOA5*3 defining allele (19W) resulted in 3-fold lower ApoAV plasma levels consistent with existing genetic association studies. These results indicate that S19W polymorphism is likely to be functional and explain the strong association of this variant with plasma triglycerides supporting the value of sensitive in vivo assays to define the functional nature of human haplotypes.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in weather conditions and patterns of extreme weather events. It may lead to changes in health threat to human beings, multiplying existing health problems. This review examines the scientific evidences on the impact of climate change on human infectious diseases. It identifies research progress and gaps on how human society may respond to, adapt to, and prepare for the related changes. Based on a survey of related publications between 1990 and 2015, the terms used for literature selection reflect three aspects--the components of infectious diseases, climate variables, and selected infectious diseases. Humans' vulnerability to the potential health impacts by climate change is evident in literature. As an active agent, human beings may control the related health effects that may be effectively controlled through adopting proactive measures, including better understanding of the climate change patterns and of the compound disease-specific health effects, and effective allocation of technologies and resources to promote healthy lifestyles and public awareness. The following adaptation measures are recommended: 1) to go beyond empirical observations of the association between climate change and infectious diseases and develop more scientific explanations, 2) to improve the prediction of spatial-temporal process of climate change and the associated shifts in infectious diseases at various spatial and temporal scales, and 3) to establish locally effective early warning systems for the health effects of predicated climate change.

Killing for disease control purposes is an emotional issue for everyone concerned. Large-scale euthanasia or depopulation of animals may be necessary for the emergency control or eradication of animal diseases, to remove animals from a compromised situation (e.g. following flood, storm, fire, drought or a feed contamination event), to effect welfare depopulation when there is an oversupply due to a dysfunctional or closed marketing channel, or to depopulate and dispose of animals with minimal handling to decrease the risk of a zoonotic disease infecting humans. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) developed international standards to provide advice on humane killing for various species and situations. Some fundamental issues are defined, such as competency of animal handling and implementation of humane killing techniques. Some of these methods have been used for many years, but novel approaches for the mass killing of particular species are being explored. Novel vaccines and new diagnostic techniques that differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals will save many animals from being killed as part of biosecurity response measures. Unfortunately, the destruction of affected livestock will still be required to control diseases whilst vaccination programmes are activated or where effective vaccines are not available. This paper reviews the principles of humane destruction and depopulation and explores available techniques with their associated advantages and disadvantages. It also identifies some current issues that merit consideration, such as legislative conflicts (emergency disease legislation versus animal welfare legislation, occupational health and safety), media issues, opinions on the future approaches to killing for disease control, and animal welfare.

Genetically modified laboratory animals provide a powerful approach for studying gene expression and regulation and allow one to directly examine structure-function and cause-and-effect relationships in pathophysiological processes. Today, transgenic mice are available as a research tool in almost every research institution. On the other hand, the development of a relatively large mammalian transgenic model, transgenic rabbits, has provided unprecedented opportunities for investigators to study the mechanisms of humandiseases and has also provided an alternative way to produce therapeutic proteins to treat humandiseases. Transgenic rabbits expressing human genes have been used as a model for cardiovascular disease, AIDS, and cancer research. The recombinant proteins can be produced from the milk of transgenic rabbits not only at lower cost but also on a relatively large scale. One of the most promising and attractive recombinant proteins derived from transgenic rabbit milk, human alpha-glucosidase, has been successfully used to treat the patients who are genetically deficient in this enzyme. Although the pronuclear microinjection is still the major and most popular method for the creation of transgenic rabbits, recent progress in gene targeting and animal cloning has opened new avenues that should make it possible to produce transgenic rabbits by somatic cell nuclear transfer in the future. Based on a computer-assisted search of the studies of transgenic rabbits published in the English literature here, we introduce to the reader the achievements made thus far with transgenic rabbits, with emphasis on the application of these rabbits as humandisease models and live bioreactors for producing human therapeutic proteins and on the recent progress in cloned rabbits.

This study established a multiplex PCR-based microarray to detect simultaneously a diverse panel of 17 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)-associated pathogens including Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma genitalium, Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma, Herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2, and Human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 54 and 58. The target genes are 16S rRNA gene for N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium, M. hominism, and Ureaplasma, the major outer membrane protein gene (ompA) for C. trachomatis, the glycoprotein B gene (gB) for HSV; and the L1 gene for HPV. A total of 34 probes were selected for the microarray including 31 specific probes, one as positive control, one as negative control, and one as positional control probe for printing reference. The microarray is specific as the commensal and pathogenic microbes (and closely related organisms) in the genitourinary tract did not cross-react with the microarray probes. The microarray is 10 times more sensitive than that of the multiplex PCR. Among the 158 suspected HPV specimens examined, the microarray showed that 49 samples contained HPV, 21 samples contained Ureaplasma, 15 contained M. hominis, four contained C. trachomatis, and one contained N. gonorrhoeae. This work reports the development of the first high through-put detection system that identifies common pathogens associated with STDs from clinical samples, and paves the way for establishing a time-saving, accurate and high-throughput diagnostic tool for STDs.

A third form of human carbonic anhydrase (CA III), found at high concentrations in skeletal muscle, has been purified and characterized. This isozyme shows relatively poor hydratase and esterase activities compared to the red cell isozymes, CA I and CA II, but is similar to these isozymes in subunit structure (monomer) and molecular size (28,000). CA III is liable to posttranslational modification by thiol group interaction. Monomeric secondary isozymes, sensitive to beta-mercaptoethanol, are found in both crude and purified material and can be generated in vitro by the addition of thiol reagents. Active dimeric isozymes, generated apparently by the formation of intermolecular disulfide bridges, also occur but account for only a small proportion of the total protein and appear only when the concentration of CA III is particularly high.

In the last decade, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have revolutionized the utility of human in vitro models of neurological disease. The iPS-derived and differentiated cells allow researchers to study the impact of a distinct cell type in health and disease as well as performing therapeutic drug screens on a human genetic background. In particular, clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been failing. Two of the potential reasons are first, the species gap involved in proceeding from initial discoveries in rodent models to human studies, and second, an unsatisfying patient stratification, meaning subgrouping patients based on the disease severity due to the lack of phenotypic and genetic markers. iPS cells overcome this obstacles and will improve our understanding of disease subtypes in AD. They allow researchers conducting in depth characterization of neural cells from both familial and sporadic AD patients as well as preclinical screens on human cells. In this review, we briefly outline the status quo of iPS cell research in neurological diseases along with the general advantages and pitfalls of these models. We summarize how genome-editing techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9 will allow researchers to reduce the problem of genomic variability inherent to human studies, followed by recent iPS cell studies relevant to AD. We then focus on current techniques for the differentiation of iPS cells into neural cell types that are relevant to AD research. Finally, we discuss how the generation of three-dimensional cell culture systems will be important for understanding AD phenotypes in a complex cellular milieu, and how both two- and three-dimensional iPS cell models can provide platforms for drug discovery and translational studies into the treatment of AD.

(hGPCs), derived from either human embryonic stem cells or mHTT-transduced fetal hGPCs. Here we show that mHTT glia can impart disease phenotype to normal mice, since mice engrafted intrastriatally with mHTT hGPCs exhibit worse motor performance than controls, and striatal neurons in mHTT glial......The causal contribution of glial pathology to Huntington disease (HD) has not been heavily explored. To define the contribution of glia to HD, we established human HD glial chimeras by neonatally engrafting immunodeficient mice with mutant huntingtin (mHTT)-expressing human glial progenitor cells...... survival in R6/2 HD mice. These observations suggest a causal role for glia in HD, and further suggest a cell-based strategy for disease amelioration in this disorder....

Full Text Available The present work provides information on Trypanosoma cruzi genotype circulating in endemic areas of Chagas disease in Panama. A total of 26 crude stocks of T. cruzi, isolated from the blood of persons with different clinical profiles of Chagas disease were collected and crio-conserved until used. Most of the stocks had been characterized by means of isoenzyme electrophoresis on cellulose acetate membranes. The clinical profiles of infected persons included 9 (34.6% asymptomatic and 17 acute (65.4% including 5 (19.2% fatal cases, 2 under 5 years old and 3 adults. A multiplex-PCR assay based on the amplification of the non-transcribed spacer of the mini-exon gene was performed. All stocks of T. cruzi included in the study were found to correspond to Tc I group. This result supports the predominance of T. cruzi-I in the transmission cycles affecting the human population in the Republic of Panama.

Acrolein, a highly reactive unsaturated aldehyde, is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant and its potential as a serious environmental health threat is beginning to be recognized. Humans are exposed to acrolein per oral (food and water), respiratory (cigarette smoke, automobile exhaust, and biocide use) and dermal routes, in addition to endogenous generation (metabolism and lipid peroxidation). Acrolein has been suggested to play a role in several disease states including spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and neuro-, hepato-, and nephro-toxicity. On the cellular level, acrolein exposure has diverse toxic effects, including DNA and protein adduction, oxidative stress, mitochondrial disruption, membrane damage, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and immune dysfunction. This review addresses our current understanding of each pathogenic mechanism of acrolein toxicity, with emphasis on the known and anticipated contribution to clinical disease, and potential therapies.

Objective Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune diseasecharacterized by an array of organ manifestations that can appear during flares and disappear during remissions. The objectives of this study were: (i) to examine SLE manifestation groups longitudinally in an SLE cohort; and (ii) to assess the association between early antimalarial treatment and renal manifestations. Methods Seven SLE manifestation groups-cutaneous, hematologic, lung, musculoskeletal, neuropsychiatric, serositis, renal-were tracked using Kaplan-Meier survival curves in an incident SLE cohort from Quebec health administrative data ( n = 2010). A subgroup with provincial drug insurance coverage was followed over time to examine the association between early antimalarial treatment (within three months after SLE diagnosis) and renal manifestations using a Cox proportional hazards survival model. Results Cutaneous manifestations was the most common manifestation at SLE diagnosis (30.0%, 95% CI: 27.7-32.2%). About two-thirds (66.2%, 95% CI: 63.4-68.9%) of patients had evidence of at least one SLE manifestation at diagnosis, which increased to 87.2% (95% CI: 84.2-90.3%) by the end of follow-up. After adjusting for age, sex, early concomitant systemic steroid therapy, Charlson comorbidity index, primary care visits in the year prior and other SLE manifestations at baseline, no statistically significant association was established between antimalarial therapy and renal manifestations. Conclusion This study provides insight regarding organ manifestations within a population-based sample. Most patients identified with SLE had other diagnostic evidence that supports an underlying diagnosis of SLE. No protective effects for antimalarial agents against renal manifestations could be established in this population-based cohort.

Inhibins and activins are members of the transforming growth factor (TGFβ) superfamily, that includes the TGFβs, inhibins and activins, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and growth and differentiation factors (GDFs). The family members are expressed throughout the human body, and are involved in the regulation of a range of important functions. The precise regulation of the TGFβ pathways is critical, and mutations of individual molecules or even minor alterations of signalling will have a significant affect on function, that may lead to development of disease or predisposition to the development of disease. The inhibins and activins regulate aspects of the male and female reproductive system, therefore, it is not surprising that most of the diseases associated with abnormalities of the inhibin and activin genes are focused on reproductive disorders and reproductive cancers. In this review, I highlight the role of genetic variants in the development of conditions such as premature ovarian failure, pre-eclampsia, and various reproductive cancers. Given the recent advances in human genetic research, such as genome wide association studies and next generation sequencing, it is likely that inhibins and activins will be shown to play more important roles in a range of human genetic diseases in the future.

Anthrax is primarily a disease of herbivores and the etiological agent is B. anthracis which is a gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, and rod shaped bacterium. Bacillus anthracis spores are highly resistant to heat, pressure, ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, chemical agents and disinfectants. For these reasons, B. anthracis spores are an attractive choice as biological agents for the use of bioweapon and/or bioterrorism. Soil is the main reservoir for the infectious agent. The disease most commonly affects wild and domestic mammals. Human are secondarily infected by contact with infected animals and contaminated animal products or directly expose to B. anthracis spores. Anthrax occurs worldwide. This infection is still endemic or hyperendemic in both animals and humans in some part of areas of the world; particularly in Middle East, West Africa, Central Asia, some part of India, South America. However, some countries are claiming free of anthrax, and anthrax has become a re-emerging disease in western countries with the intentional outbreak. Currently, anthrax is classified according to its setting as (1) naturally occurring anthrax, (2) bioterrorism-related anthrax. Vast majority of human anthrax are occurring as naturally occurring anthrax in the world. It is also a threaten disease for western countries. The aim of this paper is to review the relevant patents, short historical perspective, microbiological and epidemiological features, clinical presentations and treatment.

The need to provide in vivo complex environments to understand humandiseases strongly relies on the use of animal models, which traditionally include small rodents and rabbits. It is becoming increasingly evident that the few species utilised to date cannot be regarded as universal. There is a great need for new animal species that are naturally endowed with specific features relevant to humandiseases. Farm animals, including pigs, cows, sheep and horses, represent a valid alternative to commonly utilised rodent models. There is an ample scope for the application of proteomic techniques in farm animals, and the establishment of several proteomic maps of plasma and tissue has clearly demonstrated that farm animals provide a disease environment that closely resembles that of humandiseases. The present review offers a snapshot of how proteomic techniques have been applied to farm animals to improve their use as biomedical models. Focus will be on specific topics of biomedical research in which farm animal models have been characterised through the application of proteomic techniques.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have finally emerged onto the global health and development agenda. Despite the increasingly important role human rights play in other areas of global health, their contribution to NCD prevention and control remains nascent. The recently adopted Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020 is an important step forward, but the lack of concrete attention to human rights is a missed opportunity. With practical implications for policy development, priority setting, and strategic design, human rights offer a logical, robust set of norms and standards; define the legal obligations of governments; and provide accountability mechanisms that can be used to enhance current approaches to NCD prevention and control. Harnessing the power of human rights can strengthen action for NCDs at the local, national, and global levels.

Full Text Available Background & objectives: Human parainfluenza virus (HPIV accounts for a significant proportion of lower respiratory tract infections in children as well as adults. This study was done to detect the presence of different subtypes of HPIV from patients having influenza like illness (ILI. Methods: Throat and nasal swabs from 232 patients with ILI who were negative for influenza viruses were tested by multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(mRT-PCR for the detection of human parainfluenza virus. All samples were inoculated in rhesus monkey kidney (LLC-MK2 cell line. Results: Of the 232 samples, 26(11.2% were positive by mRT-PCR and nine (34.6% showed cytopathic effect with syncytium formation for HPIV and all were HPIV-3 serotype, other serotypes like 1,2,4 were negative. The HPIV-3 strains (HN gene were sequenced and analysed. Two novel mutations were identified at amino acid residues 295 and 297. Interpretation & conclusions: The mRT-PCR assay offers a rapid, sensitive and accurate diagnostic method for detection of HPIV which enables early detection and control. In our study there was a predominance of HPIV among 1-5 yr age group and the school going age group was less affected. Further studies need to be done to characterize HPIV isolated from different parts of the country.

Rotator cuff tears are common soft tissue injuries of the musculoskeletal system that heal by formation of repair tissue and may lead to high retear rates and joint dysfunction. In particular, tissue from chronic, large tendon tears is of such degenerative nature that it may be prone to retear after surgical repair. Besides several biomechanical approaches, biologically based strategies such as application of growth factors may be promising for increasing cell activity and production of extracellular tendon matrix at the tendon-to-bone unit. As a precondition for subsequent experimental growth factor application, the aim of the present study was to establish and characterize a human rotator cuff tendon cell culture. Long head biceps (LHB)- and supraspinatus muscle (SSP)- tendon samples from donor patients undergoing shoulder surgery were cultivated and examined at the RNA level for expression of collagen type-I, -II and -III, biglycan, decorin, tenascin-C, aggrecan, osteocalcin, tenomodulin and scleraxis (by Real-time PCR). Finally, results were compared to chondrocytes and osteoblasts as control cells. An expression pattern was found which may reflect a human rotator cuff tenocyte-like cell culture. Both SSP and LHB tenocyte-like cells differed from chondrocyte cell cultures in terms of reduced expression of collagen type-II (ptendon matrix and osteofibroblastic integration at the tendon-bone unit following tendon repair.

While mechanical properties of the brain have been investigated thoroughly, the mechanical properties of human brain tumors rarely have been directly quantified due to the complexities of acquiring human tissue. Quantifying the mechanical properties of brain tumors is a necessary prerequisite, though, to identify appropriate materials for surgical tool testing and to define target parameters for cell biology and tissue engineering applications. Since characterization methods vary widely for soft biological and synthetic materials, here, we have developed a characterization method compatible with abnormally shaped human brain tumors, mouse tumors, animal tissue and common hydrogels, which enables direct comparison among samples. Samples were tested using a custom-built millimeter-scale indenter, and resulting force-displacement data is analyzed to quantify the steady-state modulus of each sample. We have directly quantified the quasi-static mechanical properties of human brain tumors with effective moduli ranging from 0.17-16.06 kPa for various pathologies. Of the readily available and inexpensive animal tissues tested, chicken liver (steady-state modulus 0.44 ± 0.13 kPa) has similar mechanical properties to normal human brain tissue while chicken crassus gizzard muscle (steady-state modulus 3.00 ± 0.65 kPa) has similar mechanical properties to human brain tumors. Other materials frequently used to mimic brain tissue in mechanical tests, like ballistic gel and chicken breast, were found to be significantly stiffer than both normal and diseased brain tissue. We have directly compared quasi-static properties of brain tissue, brain tumors, and common mechanical surrogates, though additional tests would be required to determine more complex constitutive models.

Full Text Available Background/Aims: Extracellular vesicles (EVs are spherical fragments of cell membrane released from various cell types under physiological as well as pathological conditions. Based on their size and origin, EVs are classified as exosome, microvesicles (MVs and apoptotic bodies. Recently, the release of MVs from human red blood cells (RBCs under different conditions has been reported. MVs are released by outward budding and fission of the plasma membrane. However, the outward budding process itself, the release of MVs and the physical properties of these MVs have not been well investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the formation process, isolation and characterization of MVs released from RBCs under conditions of stimulating Ca2+ uptake and activation of protein kinase C. Methods: Experiments were performed based on single cell fluorescence imaging, fluorescence activated cell sorter/flow cytometer (FACS, scanning electron microscopy (SEM, atomic force microscopy (AFM and dynamic light scattering (DLS. The released MVs were collected by differential centrifugation and characterized in both their size and zeta potential. Results: Treatment of RBCs with 4-bromo-A23187 (positive control, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA, or phorbol-12 myristate-13 acetate (PMA in the presence of 2 mM extracellular Ca2+ led to an alteration of cell volume and cell morphology. In stimulated RBCs, exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS and formation of MVs were observed by using annexin V-FITC. The shedding of MVs was also observed in the case of PMA treatment in the absence of Ca2+, especially under the transmitted bright field illumination. By using SEM, AFM and DLS the morphology and size of stimulated RBCs, MVs were characterized. The sizes of the two populations of MVs were 205.8 ± 51.4 nm and 125.6 ± 31.4 nm, respectively. Adhesion of stimulated RBCs and MVs was observed. The zeta potential of MVs was determined in the range from - 40 mV to - 10 m

Multivariate biomarkers are needed for detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD), understanding its etiology, and quantifying the effect of therapies. Mouse models provide opportunities to study characteristics of AD in well-controlled environments that can help facilitate development of early interventions. The CVN-AD mouse model replicates multiple AD hallmark pathologies, and we identified multivariate biomarkers characterizing a brain circuit disruption predictive of cognitive decline. In vivo and ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that CVN-AD mice replicate the hippocampal atrophy (6%), characteristic of humans with AD, and also present changes in subcortical areas. The largest effect was in the fornix (23% smaller), which connects the septum, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. In characterizing the fornix with diffusion tensor imaging, fractional anisotropy was most sensitive (20% reduction), followed by radial (15%) and axial diffusivity (2%), in detecting pathological changes. These findings were strengthened by optical microscopy and ultrastructural analyses. Ultrastructual analysis provided estimates of axonal density, diameters, and myelination-through the g-ratio, defined as the ratio between the axonal diameter, and the diameter of the axon plus the myelin sheath. The fornix had reduced axonal density (47% fewer), axonal degeneration (13% larger axons), and abnormal myelination (1.5% smaller g-ratios). CD68 staining showed that white matter pathology could be secondary to neuronal degeneration, or due to direct microglial attack. In conclusion, these findings strengthen the hypothesis that the fornix plays a role in AD, and can be used as a disease biomarker and as a target for therapy.

On the basis of a memory function formalism for correlation functions of time series we investigate statistical memory effects by the use of appropriate spectral and relaxation parameters of measured stochastic data for neuro-system diseases. In particular, we study the dynamics of the walk of a patient who suffers from Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and compare against the data of healthy people (CO - control group). We employ an analytical method which is able to characterize the stochastic properties of stride-to-stride variations of gait cycle timing. Our results allow us to estimate quantitatively a few human locomotion function abnormalities occurring in the human brain and in the central nervous system (CNS). Particularly, the patient's gait dynamics are characterized by an increased memory behavior together with sizable fluctuations as compared with the locomotion dynamics of healthy patients. Moreover, we complement our findings with peculiar features as detected in phase-space portraits and spectral characteristics for the different data sets (PD, HD, ALS and healthy people). The evaluation of statistical quantifiers of the memory function is shown to provide a useful toolkit which can be put to work to identify various abnormalities of locomotion dynamics. Moreover, it allows one to diagnose qualitatively and quantitatively serious brain and central nervous system diseases.

It has long been thought that mammalian Sertoli cells are terminally differentiated and nondividing postpuberty. For most previous in vitro studies immature rodent testes have been the source of Sertoli cells and these have shown little proliferative ability when cultured. We have isolated and characterized Sertoli cells from human cadaveric testes from seven donors ranging from 12 to 36 years of age. The cells proliferated readily in vitro under the optimized conditions used with a doubling time of approximately 4 days. Nuclear 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation confirmed that dividing cells represented the majority of the population. Classical Sertoli cell ultrastructural features, lipid droplet accumulation, and immunoexpression of GATA-4, Sox9, and the FSH receptor (FSHr) were observed by electron and fluorescence microscopy, respectively. Flow cytometry revealed the expression of GATA-4 and Sox9 by more than 99% of the cells, and abundant expression of a number of markers indicative of multipotent mesenchymal cells. Low detection of endogenous alkaline phosphatase activity after passaging showed that few peritubular myoid cells were present. GATA-4 and SOX9 expression were confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), along with expression of stem cell factor (SCF), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), and bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP4). Tight junctions were formed by Sertoli cells plated on transwell inserts coated with fibronectin as revealed by increased transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) and polarized secretion of the immunoregulatory protein, galectin-1. These primary Sertoli cell populations could be expanded dramatically in vitro and could be cryopreserved. The results show that functional human Sertoli cells can be propagated in vitro from testicular cells isolated from adult testis. The proliferative human Sertoli cells should have important applications in studying infertility

Full Text Available Background: The Chronic Inflammatory Periodontal Disease is related with multiple risk factors. Those patients with human immunodeficiency virus have higher risk of presenting this disease and it is usually more serious in these cases. Objective: To describe the prevalence of Chronic Inflammatory Periodontal Disease in patients with HIV. Methods: Descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study including patients with HIV in Sancti Spiritus province. The occurrence of the disease was determined after the Periodontics Cuban Standards, and oral hygiene was assessed through the simplified oral hygiene index. Other variables were measured, such as smoking habits, T CD4+ lymphocyte counting and virus load. The independent association of each risk factor with the disease was determined through a logistic regression model. Results: The 56, 5 % of the 154 patients presented Chronic Inflammatory Periodontal Disease; 60 (39.0% gingivitis and 27 (17,5% periodontitis. Gingivitis was associated with poor oral hygiene (OR: 3,71 and periodontitis with smoking habit (OR: 5,20. The severe forms of periodontitis occurred mainly in patients with lymphocyte counting lower than 500 cells/mm3 . Conclusions: The prevalence of Chronic Inflammatory Periodontal Disease in patients with HIV in Sancti Spiritus province is linked to known risk factors such as smoking habits and oral hygiene.

Full Text Available Yersinia pestis is a gram-negative, zoonotic, bacterial pathogen, and the causative agent of plague. The bubonic form of plague occurs subsequent to deposition of bacteria in the skin by the bite of an infected flea. Neutrophils are recruited to the site of infection within the first few hours and interactions between neutrophils and Y. pestis have been demonstrated in vivo. In contrast to macrophages, neutrophils have been considered non-permissive to Y. pestis intracellular survival. Several studies have shown killing of the vast majority of Y. pestis ingested by human neutrophils. However, survival of 10–15% of Y. pestis after phagocytosis by neutrophils is consistently observed. Furthermore, these surviving bacteria eventually replicate within and escape from the neutrophils. We set out to further characterize the interactions between Y. pestis and human neutrophils by (1 determining the effects of known Y. pestis virulence factors on bacterial survival after uptake by neutrophils, (2 examining the mechanisms employed by the neutrophil to kill the majority of intracellular Y. pestis, (3 determining the activation phenotype of Y. pestis-infected neutrophils, and (4 characterizing the Y. pestis-containing phagosome in neutrophils. We infected human neutrophils in vitro with Y. pestis and assayed bacterial survival and uptake. Deletion of the caf1 gene responsible for F1 capsule production resulted in significantly increased uptake of Y. pestis. Surprisingly, while the two-component regulator PhoPQ system is important for survival of Y. pestis within neutrophils, pre-induction of this system prior to infection did not increase bacterial survival. We used an IPTG-inducible mCherry construct to distinguish viable from non-viable intracellular bacteria and determined the association of the Y. pestis-containing phagosome with neutrophil NADPH-oxidase and markers of primary, secondary and tertiary granules. Additionally, we show that inhibition of

Sulfotransferase (SULT) function has been well studied in healthy human subjects by quantifying mRNA and protein expression and determining enzyme activity with probe substrates. However, it is not well known if sulfotransferase activity changes in metabolic and liver disease, such as diabetes, steatosis, or cirrhosis. Sulfotransferases have significant roles in the regulation of hormones and excretion of xenobiotics. In the present study of normal subjects with nonfatty livers and patients with steatosis, diabetic cirrhosis, and alcoholic cirrhosis, we sought to determine SULT1A1, SULT2A1, SULT1E1, and SULT1A3 activity and mRNA and protein expression in human liver tissue. In general, sulfotransferase activity decreased significantly with severity of liver disease from steatosis to cirrhosis. Specifically, SULT1A1 and SULT1A3 activities were lower in disease states relative to nonfatty tissues. Alcoholic cirrhotic tissues further contained lower SULT1A1 and 1A3 activities than those affected by either of the two other disease states. SULT2A1, on the other hand, was only reduced in alcoholic cirrhotic tissues. SULT1E1 was reduced both in diabetic cirrhosis and in alcoholic cirrhosis tissues, relative to nonfatty liver tissues. In conclusion, the reduced levels of sulfotransferase expression and activity in diseased versus nondiseased liver tissue may alter the metabolism and disposition of xenobiotics and affect homeostasis of endobiotic sulfotransferase substrates.

Credit scores are the most widely used instruments to assess whether or not a person is a financial risk. Credit scoring has been so successful that it has expanded beyond lending and into our everyday lives, even to inform how insurers evaluate our health. The pervasive application of credit scoring has outpaced knowledge about why credit scores are such useful indicators of individual behavior. Here we test if the same factors that lead to poor credit scores also lead to poor health. Following the Dunedin (New Zealand) Longitudinal Study cohort of 1,037 study members, we examined the association between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk and the underlying factors that account for this association. We find that credit scores are negatively correlated with cardiovascular disease risk. Variation in household income was not sufficient to account for this association. Rather, individual differences in human capital factors—educational attainment, cognitive ability, and self-control—predicted both credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk and accounted for ∼45% of the correlation between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk. Tracing human capital factors back to their childhood antecedents revealed that the characteristic attitudes, behaviors, and competencies children develop in their first decade of life account for a significant portion (∼22%) of the link between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk at midlife. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy debates about data privacy, financial literacy, and early childhood interventions.

Credit scores are the most widely used instruments to assess whether or not a person is a financial risk. Credit scoring has been so successful that it has expanded beyond lending and into our everyday lives, even to inform how insurers evaluate our health. The pervasive application of credit scoring has outpaced knowledge about why credit scores are such useful indicators of individual behavior. Here we test if the same factors that lead to poor credit scores also lead to poor health. Following the Dunedin (New Zealand) Longitudinal Study cohort of 1,037 study members, we examined the association between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk and the underlying factors that account for this association. We find that credit scores are negatively correlated with cardiovascular disease risk. Variation in household income was not sufficient to account for this association. Rather, individual differences in human capital factors—educational attainment, cognitive ability, and self-control—predicted both credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk and accounted for ∼45% of the correlation between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk. Tracing human capital factors back to their childhood antecedents revealed that the characteristic attitudes, behaviors, and competencies children develop in their first decade of life account for a significant portion (∼22%) of the link between credit scores and cardiovascular disease risk at midlife. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy debates about data privacy, financial literacy, and early childhood interventions. PMID:25404329

Cardioviruses (e.g., Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus [TMEV]) are members of the Picornaviridae family that cause myocarditis and encephalitis in rodents. Recently, several studies have identified human cardioviruses, including Saffold virus (SAFV) and a related virus named human TMEV-like cardiovirus (HTCV). At least eight cardiovirus genotypes are now recognized, with SAFV and most strains of HTCV belonging to genotypes 1 and 2, respectively; genotype 2 strains are the most common in the population. Although a genotype 3 cardiovirus has recently been cultured (SAFV-3), the genotype 1 and 2 cardioviruses have been difficult to propagate in vitro, hindering efforts to understand their seroprevalence and pathogenicity. Here we present the isolation and characterization of a genotype 2 human cardiovirus (HTCV-UC6). Notably, successful cultivation of HTCV-UC6 from stool required the addition of cytokine-blocking antibodies to interrupt downstream antiviral pathways. Unlike SAFV-3, HTCV-UC6 exhibited slow replication kinetics and demonstrated only a moderate cytopathic effect. Serologic assays revealed that 91% of U.S. adults carry antibodies to the genotype 2 cardioviruses, of which 80% generate neutralizing antibodies, in agreement with previous data showing that cardiovirus infection is widespread in humans. We also demonstrate an acute cardiovirus seroconversion event in a child with diarrhea and vomiting, thus reporting for the first time evidence linking cardiovirus infection to diarrheal disease in humans. PMID:20164225

Full Text Available Polyphenols are secondary metabolites of plants and are generally involved in defense against ultraviolet radiation or aggression by pathogens. In the last decade, there has been much interest in the potential health benefits of dietary plant polyphenols as antioxidant. Epidemiological studies and associated meta-analyses strongly suggest that long term consumption of diets rich in plant polyphenols offer protection against development of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis and neurodegenerative diseases. Here we present knowledge about the biological effects of plant polyphenols in the context of relevance to human health.

Pulmonary disease is the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). All parts of the hospital system are expected to be involved in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infected patients in the coming years. Many different processes...... cause pulmonary disease alone or in combination. Bilateral interstitial infiltrates are the most frequent chest x-ray abnormality and are most frequently caused by infection with Pneumocystis carinii. Cytomegalovirus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, nonspecific interstitial pneumonitis and pulmonary Kaposi...

Taxonomic and functional changes to the composition of the gut microbiome have been implicated in multiple humandiseases. Recent microbiome genome-wide association studies reveal that variants in many human genes involved in immunity and gut architecture are associated with an altered composition of the gut microbiome. Although many factors can affect the microbial organisms residing in the gut, a number of recent findings support the hypothesis that certain host genetic variants predispose an individual towards microbiome dysbiosis. This condition, in which the normal microbiome population structure is disturbed, is a key feature in disorders of metabolism and immunity.

The term 'channelopathy' refers to human genetic disorders caused by mutations in genes encoding ion channels or their interacting proteins. Recent advances in this field have been enabled by next-generation DNA sequencing strategies such as whole exome sequencing with several intriguing and unexpected discoveries. This review highlights important discoveries implicating ion channels or ion channel modulators in cardiovascular disorders including cardiac arrhythmia susceptibility, cardiac conduction phenotypes, pulmonary and systemic hypertension. These recent discoveries further emphasize the importance of ion channels in the pathophysiology of humandisease and as important druggable targets.

In adults hospitalized with viral pneumonias the main differential diagnostic consideration is influenza pneumonia. The respiratory viruses causing viral influenza like illnesses (ILIs), e.g., RSV may closely resemble influenza. Rarely, extrapulmonary findings of some ILIs may resemble Legionnaire's disease (LD), e.g., adenovirus, human parainfluenza virus (HPIV-3). We present a most unusual case of human metapneumonovirus pneumonia (hMPV) with some characteristic extrapulmonary findings characteristic of LD, e.g., relative bradycardia, as well as mildly elevated serum transaminases and hyphosphatemia. We believe this is the first reported case of hMPV pneumonia in a hospitalized adult that had some features of LD.

Full Text Available Experimental human challenge models have played a major role in enhancing our understanding of infectious diseases. Primary outcomes have typically utilized overly simplistic outcomes that fail to entirely account for complex illness syndromes. We sought to characterize clinical outcomes associated with experimental infection with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC and to develop a disease score.Data were obtained from prior controlled human ETEC infection studies. Correlation and univariate regression across sign and symptom severity was performed. A multiple correspondence analysis was conducted. A 3-parameter disease score with construct validity was developed in an iterative fashion, compared to standard outcome definitions and applied to prior vaccine challenge trials.Data on 264 subjects receiving seven ETEC strains at doses from 1x105 to 1x1010 cfu were used to construct a standardized dataset. The strongest observed correlation was between vomiting and nausea (r = 0.65; however, stool output was poorly correlated with subjective activity-impacting outcomes. Multiple correspondence analyses showed covariability in multiple signs and symptoms, with severity being the strongest factor corresponding across outcomes. The developed disease score performed well compared to standard outcome definitions and differentiated disease in vaccinated and unvaccinated subjects.Frequency and volumetric definitions of diarrhea severity poorly characterize ETEC disease. These data support a disease severity score accounting for stool output and other clinical signs and symptoms. Such a score could serve as the basis for better field trial outcomes and gives an additional outcome measure to help select future vaccines that warrant expanded testing in pivotal pre-licensure trials.

Newcastle disease (ND) is a highly contagious disease of poultry. The ND virus (NDV) encodes an error-prone RNA-dependent RNA polymerase which can cause high mutation rate leading to the emergence of its new antigenic variants. Antigenic difference of NDV strains may result in massive outbreak in vaccinated and unvaccinated poultry flocks around the globe. Apart from its pathogenic potential NDV has been explored as an oncolytic agent for a broad range of human cancers. In the present study, we isolated a novel NDV strain from an outbreak in chicken flock from the eastern part of India. Molecular characterization showed the NDV strain to be virulent in nature. The complete genome sequence analysis of the newly isolated strains belongs to genotype XIII. Moreover, the newly isolated strain of NDV showed positive results in various apoptotic assays in human breast cancer cells, MCF-7. The study will be useful to explore the possibility of using a newly isolated strain of NDV for virotherapy.

Full Text Available In the last two decades we have witnessed a paradigm shift in our understanding of cells so radical that it has rewritten the rules of biology. The study of cellular reprogramming has gone from little more than a hypothesis, to applied bioengineering, with the creation of a variety of important cell types. By way of metaphor, we can compare the discovery of reprogramming with the archaeological discovery of the Rosetta stone. This stone slab made possible the initial decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics because it allowed us to see this language in a way that was previously impossible. We propose that cellular reprogramming will have an equally profound impact on understanding and curing humandisease, because it allows us to perceive and study molecular biological processes such as differentiation, epigenetics, and chromatin in ways that were likewise previously impossible. Stem cells could be called cellular Rosetta stones because they allow also us to perceive the connections between development, disease, cancer, aging, and regeneration in novel ways. Here we present a comprehensive historical review of stem cells and cellular reprogramming, and illustrate the developing synergy between many previously unconnected fields. We show how stem cells can be used to create in vitro models of humandisease and provide examples of how reprogramming is being used to study and treat such diverse diseases as cancer, aging and accelerated aging syndromes, infectious diseases such as AIDS, and epigenetic diseases such as polycystic ovary syndrome. While the technology of reprogramming is being developed and refined there have also been significant ongoing developments in other complementary technologies such as gene editing, progenitor cell production, and tissue engineering. These technologies are the foundations of what is becoming a fully-functional field of regenerative medicine and are converging to a point that will allow us to treat almost any

Full Text Available The consumption of fruits and vegetables, as well as foods enriched in bioactive compounds and nutraceuticals, has increased due to consumers’ interest in the relevance of food composition for human health. Considerable recent interest has focused on bioactive phenolic compounds in grape, as they possess many biological activities, such as antioxidant, cardioprotective, anticancer, anti-inflammation, anti-ageing and antimicrobial properties. Observational studies indicate that the intake of polyphenol-rich foods improves vascular health, thereby significantly reducing the risk of hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD. Other researchers have described the benefits of a grape polyphenol-rich diet for other types of maladies such as diabetes mellitus. This is a comprehensive review on the consumption of polyphenolic grape compounds, concerning their potential benefits for human health in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

The consumption of fruits and vegetables, as well as foods enriched in bioactive compounds and nutraceuticals, has increased due to consumers' interest in the relevance of food composition for human health. Considerable recent interest has focused on bioactive phenolic compounds in grape, as they possess many biological activities, such as antioxidant, cardioprotective, anticancer, anti-inflammation, anti-ageing and antimicrobial properties. Observational studies indicate that the intake of polyphenol-rich foods improves vascular health, thereby significantly reducing the risk of hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Other researchers have described the benefits of a grape polyphenol-rich diet for other types of maladies such as diabetes mellitus. This is a comprehensive review on the consumption of polyphenolic grape compounds, concerning their potential benefits for human health in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

The targeting and assembly of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins are essential processes because the energy supply of humans is dependent upon the proper functioning of mitochondria. Defective import of mitochondrial proteins can arise from mutations in the targeting signals within precursor proteins, from mutations that disrupt the proper functioning of the import machinery, or from deficiencies in the chaperones involved in the proper folding and assembly of proteins once they are imported. Defects in these steps of import have been shown to lead to oxidative stress, neurodegenerative diseases, and metabolic disorders. In addition, protein import into mitochondria has been found to be a dynamically regulated process that varies in response to conditions such as oxidative stress, aging, drug treatment, and exercise. This review focuses on how mitochondrial protein import affects human health and disease.

Recent findings have demonstrated that the gut microbiome complements our human genome with at least 100-fold more genes. In contrast to our Homo sapiens-derived genes, the microbiome is much more plastic, and its composition changes with age and diet, among other factors. An altered gut microbiota has been associated with several diseases, including obesity and diabetes, but the mechanisms involved remain elusive. Here we discuss factors that affect the gut microbiome, how the gut microbiome may contribute to metabolic diseases, and how to study the gut microbiome. Next-generation sequencing and development of software packages have led to the development of large-scale sequencing efforts to catalog the human microbiome. Furthermore, the use of genetically engineered gnotobiotic mouse models may increase our understanding of mechanisms by which the gut microbiome modulates host metabolism. A combination of classical microbiology, sequencing, and animal experiments may provide further insights into how the gut microbiota affect host metabolism and physiology.

We recently surveyed the relationship between the human brain transcriptome and genome in a series of neuropathologically normal postmortem samples. We have now analyzed additional samples with a confirmed pathologic diagnosis of late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD; final n = 188 controls, 176 cases). Nine percent of the cortical transcripts that we analyzed had expression profiles correlated with their genotypes in the combined cohort, and approximately 5% of transcripts had SNP-transcript relationships that could distinguish LOAD samples. Two of these transcripts have been previously implicated in LOAD candidate-gene SNP-expression screens. This study shows how the relationship between common inherited genetic variants and brain transcript expression can be used in the study of human brain disorders. We suggest that studying the transcriptome as a quantitative endo-phenotype has greater power for discovering risk SNPs influencing expression than the use of discrete diagnostic categories such as presence or absence of disease.

Detection of mutant human genes is rapidly becoming an integral part of clinical practice. Humandisease may arise by genetic deletion, insertion, fusion, point mutation, or amplification of unstable sequences. Such changes in structure may occur in germ cells or somatically. Rapid advances in understanding the complex nuclear and mitochondrial genomes necessitates deployment of a variety of methods to identify aberrant genes. These techniques include polymerase chain reaction, Southern transfer, and allele-specific hybridization studies, as well as methods to unmask mismatches between mutant and normal sequences. Development of protein truncation tests has added a vehicle for assessing larger DNA segments for mutations that cause premature translational termination. Linkage analysis remains an important tool where direct assay of disease-causing mutations is not possible. Considerations of confidentiality, informed consent, and insurability are important whenever genetic testing is used. These issues will assume increasing importance as presymptomatic testing for heritable predispositions emerges for common conditions.

Demodex mites, class Arachnida and subclass Acarina, are elongated mites with clear cephalothorax and abdomens, the former with four pairs of legs. There are more than 100 species of Demodex mite, many of which are obligatory commensals of the pilosebaceous unit of mammals including cats, dogs, sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, deer, bats, hamsters, rats and mice. Among them, Demodex canis, which is found ubiquitously in dogs, is the most documented and investigated. In excessive numbers D. canis causes the inflammatory disease termed demodicosis (demodectic mange, follicular mange or red mange), which is more common in purebred dogs and has a hereditary predisposition in breeding kennels1. Two distinct Demodex species have been confirmed as the most common ectoparasite in man. The larger Demodex folliculorum, about 0.3-0.4 mm long, is primarily found as a cluster in the hair follicle (Figure 1a), while the smaller Demodex brevis, about 0.2-0.3 mm long with a spindle shape and stubby legs, resides solitarily in the sebaceous gland (Figure 1b). These two species are also ubiquitously found in all human races without gender preference. The pathogenic role of Demodex mites in veterinary medicine is not as greatly disputed as in humandiseases. In this article, we review the key literature and our joint research experience regarding the pathogenic potential of these two mites in causing inflammatory diseases of human skin and eye. We hope that the evidence summarized herein will invite readers to take a different look at the life of Demodex mites in several common humandiseases.

The dilution effect is the sort of idea that everyone wants to be true. If nature protects humans against infectious disease, imagine the implications: nature's value could be tallied in terms of human suffering avoided. This makes a potent argument for conservation, convincing even to those who would otherwise be disinclined to support conservation initiatives. The appeal of the dilution effect has been recognized by others: “the desire to make the case for conservation has led to broad claims regarding the benefits of nature conservation for human health” (Bauch et al. 2015). Randolph and Dobson (2012) were among the first to critique these claims, making the case that promotion of conservation to reduce Lyme disease risk, although well intentioned, was flawed. Along with Randolph and Dobson's critique, there have been several calls for a more nuanced scientific assessment of the relationship between biodiversity and disease transmission (Dunn 2010, Salkeld et al. 2013, Wood and Lafferty 2013, Young et al. 2013). In response, supporters of the dilution effect have instead increased the scope of their generalizations with review papers, press releases, and, like Levi et al. (2015), letters. These responses have been successful; it is not uncommon to read papers that repeat the assertion that biodiversity generally interferes with disease transmission and that conservation will therefore generally benefit human health. Here, we explain how Levi et al. (2015) and other, similar commentaries use selective interpretation and shifting definitions to argue for the generality of the dilution effect hypothesis.

Mutations in genes encoding proteins required for telomere structure, replication, repair and length maintenance are associated with several debilitating human genetic disorders. These complex telomere biology disorders (TBDs) give rise to critically short telomeres that affect the homeostasis of multiple organs. Furthermore, genome instability is often a hallmark of telomere syndromes, which are associated with increased cancer risk. Here, we summarize the molecular causes and cellular consequences of disease-causing mutations associated with telomere dysfunction.

Full Text Available Due to the increasing power of personal computers, as well as the availability of flexible forward-time simulation programs like simuPOP, it is now possible to simulate the evolution of complex humandiseases using a forward-time approach. This approach is potentially more powerful than the coalescent approach since it allows simulations of more than one disease susceptibility locus using almost arbitrary genetic and demographic models. However, the application of such simulations has been deterred by the lack of a suitable simulation framework. For example, it is not clear when and how to introduce disease mutants-especially those under purifying selection-to an evolving population, and how to control the disease allele frequencies at the last generation. In this paper, we introduce a forward-time simulation framework that allows us to generate large multi-generation populations with complex diseases caused by unlinked disease susceptibility loci, according to specified demographic and evolutionary properties. Unrelated individuals, small or large pedigrees can be drawn from the resulting population and provide samples for a wide range of study designs and ascertainment methods. We demonstrate our simulation framework using three examples that map genes associated with affection status, a quantitative trait, and the age of onset of a hypothetical cancer, respectively. Nonadditive fitness models, population structure, and gene-gene interactions are simulated. Case-control, sibpair, and large pedigree samples are drawn from the simulated populations and are examined by a variety of gene-mapping methods.

Full Text Available In recent years, zebrafish, and to a lesser extent medaka, have become widely used small animal models for humandiseases. These organisms have convincingly demonstrated the usefulness of fish for improving our understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to pathological conditions, and for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Despite the usefulness of zebrafish and medaka in the investigation of a wide spectrum of traits, there is evidence to suggest that other fish species could be better suited for more targeted questions. With the emergence of new, improved sequencing technologies that enable genomic resources to be generated with increasing efficiency and speed, the potential of non-mainstream fish species as disease models can now be explored. A key feature of these fish species is that the pathological condition that they model is often related to specific evolutionary adaptations. By exploring these adaptations, new disease-causing and disease-modifier genes might be identified; thus, diverse fish species could be exploited to better understand the complexity of disease processes. In addition, non-mainstream fish models could allow us to study the impact of environmental factors, as well as genetic variation, on complex disease phenotypes. This Review will discuss the opportunities that such fish models offer for current and future biomedical research.

Proximal tubule protein uptake is mediated by 2 receptors, megalin and cubilin. These receptors rescue a variety of filtered ligands, including biomarkers, essential vitamins, and hormones. Receptor gene knockout animal models have identified important functions of the receptors and have established their essential role in modulating urinary protein excretion. Rare genetic syndromes associated with dysfunction of these receptors have been identified and characterized, providing additional information on the importance of these receptors in humans. Using various disease models in combination with receptor gene knockout, the implications of receptor dysfunction in acute and chronic kidney injury have been explored and have pointed to potential new roles of these receptors. Based on data from animal models, this paper will review current knowledge on proximal tubule endocytic receptor function and regulation, and their role in renal development, protein reabsorption, albumin uptake, and normal renal physiology. These findings have implications for the pathophysiology and diagnosis of proteinuric renal diseases. We will examine the limitations of the different models and compare the findings to phenotypic observations in inherited human disorders associated with receptor dysfunction. Furthermore, evidence from receptor knockout mouse models as well as human observations suggesting a role of protein receptors for renal disease will be discussed in light of conditions such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension.

Osteoarthritis is a common disease. However, its causes and morphological features of diseased cartilage surfaces are not well understood. The purposes of this research were (a) to develop quantitative surface characterization techniques to study human cartilages at a micron and submicron scale and (b) to investigate distinctive changes in the surface morphologies and biomechanical properties of the cartilages in different osteoarthritis grades. Diseased cartilage samples collected from osteoarthritis patients were prepared for image acquisition using two different techniques, that is, laser scanning microscopy at a micrometer scale and atomic force microscopy at a nanometer scale. Three-dimensional, digital images of human cartilages were processed and analyzed quantitatively. This study has demonstrated that high-quality three-dimensional images of human cartilage surfaces could be obtained in a hydrated condition using laser scanning microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Based on the numerical data extracted from improved image quality and quantity, it has been found that osteoarthritis evolution can be identified by specific surface features at the micrometer scale, and these features are amplitude and functional property related. At the submicron level, the spatial features of the surfaces were revealed to differ between early and advanced osteoarthritis grades. The effective indentation moduli of human cartilages effectively revealed the cartilage deterioration. The imaging acquisition and numerical analysis methods established allow quantitative studies of distinctive changes in cartilage surface characteristics and better understanding of the cartilage degradation process.

There is considerable evidence for induction of differential risk of noncommunicable diseases in humans by variation in the quality of the early life environment. Studies in animal models show that induction and stability of induced changes in the phenotype of the offspring involve altered epigenetic regulation by DNA methylation and covalent modifications of histones. These findings indicate that such epigenetic changes are highly gene specific and function at the level of individual CpG dinucleotides. Interventions using supplementation with folic acid or methyl donors during pregnancy, or folic acid after weaning, alter the phenotype and epigenotype induced by maternal dietary constraint during gestation. This suggests a possible means for reducing risk of induced noncommunicable disease, although the design and conduct of such interventions may require caution. The purpose of this review is to discuss recent advances in understanding the mechanism that underlies the early life origins of disease and to place these studies in a broader life-course context.

With the completion of the human genome project and the development of new methods for gene variant detection, the integration of mutation data and its phenotypic consequences has become more important than ever. Among all available resources, locus-specific databases (LSDBs) curate one or more specific genes' mutation data along with high-quality phenotypes. Although some genotype-phenotype data from LSDB have been integrated into central databases little effort has been made to integrate all these data by a search engine approach. In this work, we have developed disease related unique gene mutation search engine (DRUMS), a search engine for humandisease related unique gene mutation as a convenient tool for biologists or physicians to retrieve gene variant and related phenotype information. Gene variant and phenotype information were stored in a gene-centred relational database. Moreover, the relationships between mutations and diseases were indexed by the uniform resource identifier from LSDB, or another central database. By querying DRUMS, users can access the most popular mutation databases under one interface. DRUMS could be treated as a domain specific search engine. By using web crawling, indexing, and searching technologies, it provides a competitively efficient interface for searching and retrieving mutation data and their relationships to diseases. The present system is freely accessible at http://www.scbit.org/glif/new/drums/index.html.

This paper contains the results of a study that examined the impacts of air pollution on human health in Thiruvananthapuram City, India. The study compared health impacts arising from air pollution in three different zones including residential, commercial, and industrial. The paper presents the findings from the study according to each of these zones and presents conclusions.The study found that each zone had its individual environmental problems which were characterized by specific diseases. In the residential zone, there was a prevalence of diseases such as breast cancer and cardiac-related problems as well as dietary problems linked to obesity. In the industrial zone, respiratory illnesses related to air pollution were prevalent. Cardiac and vector-borne diseases, related to environmental hazards like waste water stagnation, dust and solid waste problem, were high in the commercial zone. 14 refs., 3 figs.

Human autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) produces kidneys which are massively enlarged due to multiple cysts, hypertension, and congenital hepatic fibrosis characterized by dilated bile ducts and portal hypertension. The PCK rat is an orthologous model of human ARPKD with numerous fluid-filled cysts caused by stimulated cellular proliferation in the renal tubules and hepatic bile duct epithelia, with interstitial fibrosis developed in the liver. We previously reported that a peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR)-γ full agonist ameliorated kidney and liver disease in PCK rats. Telmisartan is an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) used widely as an antihypertensive drug and shows partial PPAR-γ agonist activity. It also has nephroprotective activity in diabetes and renal injury and prevents the effects of drug-induced hepatotoxicity and hepatic fibrosis. In the present study, we determined whether telmisartan ameliorates progression of polycystic kidney and fibrocystic liver disease in PCK rats. Five male and 5 female PCK and normal control (+/+) rats were orally administered 3 mg/kg telmisartan or vehicle every day from 4 to 20 weeks of age. Treatment with telmisartan decreased blood pressure in both PCK and +/+ rats. Blood levels of aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase and urea nitrogen were unaffected by telmisartan treatment. There was no effect on kidney disease progression, but liver weight relative to body weight, liver cystic area, hepatic fibrosis index, expression levels of Ki67 and TGF-β, and the number of Ki67- and TGF-β-positive interstitial cells in the liver were significantly decreased in telmisartan-treated PCK rats. Therefore, telmisartan ameliorates congenital hepatic fibrosis in ARPKD, possibly through the inhibition of signaling cascades responsible for cellular proliferation and interstitial fibrosis in PCK rats. The present results support the potential therapeutic use of ARBs for the

The human LPIN1 gene encodes the protein lipin 1, which possesses phosphatidate (PA) phosphatase (3-sn-phosphatidate phosphohydrolase; EC 3.1.3.4) activity (Han, G.-S., Wu, W.-I., and Carman, G. M. (2006) J. Biol. Chem. 281, 9210–9218). In this work, we characterizedhuman lipin 1 α, β, and γ isoforms that were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to near homogeneity. PA phosphatase activities of the α, β, and γ isoforms were dependent on Mg2+ or Mn2+ ions at pH 7.5 at 37 °C. The activities were inhibited by concentrations of Mg2+ and Mn2+ above their optimums and by Ca2+, Zn2+, N-ethylmaleimide, propranolol, and the sphingoid bases sphingosine and sphinganine. The activities were thermally labile at temperatures above 40 °C. The α, β, and γ activities followed saturation kinetics with respect to the molar concentration of PA (Km values of 0.35, 0.24, and 0.11 mm, respectively) but followed positive cooperative (Hill number ∼2) kinetics with respect to the surface concentration of PA (Km values of 4.2, 4.5, and 4.3 mol %, respectively) in Triton X-100/PA-mixed micelles. The turnover numbers (kcat) for the α, β, and γ isoforms were 68.8 ± 3.5, 42.8 ± 2.5, and 5.7 ± 0.2 s−1, respectively, whereas their energy of activation values were 14.2, 15.5, and 18.5 kcal/mol, respectively. The isoform activities were dependent on PA as a substrate and required at least one unsaturated fatty acyl moiety for maximum activity. PMID:20231281

Despite recent advances in human genetics, model organisms are indispensable for humandisease research. Most humandisease pathways are evolutionally conserved among other species, where they may phenocopy the human condition or be associated with seemingly unrelated phenotypes. Much of the known gene-to-phenotype association information is distributed across diverse databases, growing rapidly due to new experimental techniques. Accessible bioinformatics tools will therefore facilitate translation of discoveries from model organisms into humandisease biology. Here, we present a web-based discovery tool for humandisease studies, MORPHIN (model organisms projected on a human integrated gene network), which prioritizes the most relevant humandiseases for a given set of model organism genes, potentially highlighting new model systems for humandiseases and providing context to model organism studies. Conceptually, MORPHIN investigates humandiseases by an orthology-based projection of a set of model organism genes onto a genome-scale human gene network. MORPHIN then prioritizes humandiseases by relevance to the projected model organism genes using two distinct methods: a conventional overlap-based gene set enrichment analysis and a network-based measure of closeness between the query and disease gene sets capable of detecting associations undetectable by the conventional overlap-based methods. MORPHIN is freely accessible at http://www.inetbio.org/morphin.

Full Text Available Minghua Wu, Maureen D Mayes Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunogenetics, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX, USA Abstract: Systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma is a chronic, multisystem autoimmune diseasecharacterized by vasculopathy, fibrosis, and autoantibodies. In the past decade, great efforts have been made to investigate genetic susceptibility for SSc. To date, over 20 gene loci have been identified as risk factors for SSc in large genome-wide association studies and confirmed by independent replication studies. However, the biological relevance of these genetic associations is still largely unknown. Exploring the mechanism behind these risk loci is essential to better understand disease pathogenesis and to identify novel therapeutic targets. Mouse model studies including knockout, knockin and knockdown of these genes can advance our understanding of pathogenic cellular and molecular mechanisms in humandisease. Although such mouse model systems do not exactly correspond to humandisease, they can provide insight into pathological mechanisms that influence disease pathways. In this review, we discuss recent findings regarding the genetic basis of SSc in the setting of genetic manipulation of these pathways in murine models. Keywords: GWAS, Immunochip study, type I interferon pathway, genetic mutation animal models

Full Text Available Obesity, a social problem worldwide, is characterized by an increase in body weight that results in excessive fat accumulation. Obesity is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and leads to several diseases, including metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular, fatty liver diseases, and cancer. Growing evidence allows us to understand the critical role of adipose tissue in controlling the physic-pathological mechanisms of obesity and related comorbidities. Recently, adipose tissue, especially in the visceral compartment, has been considered not only as a simple energy depository tissue, but also as an active endocrine organ releasing a variety of biologically active molecules known as adipocytokines or adipokines. Based on the complex interplay between adipokines, obesity is also characterized by chronic low grade inflammation with permanently increased oxidative stress (OS. Over-expression of oxidative stress damages cellular structures together with under-production of anti-oxidant mechanisms, leading to the development of obesity-related complications. The aim of this review is to summarize what is known in the relationship between OS in obesity and obesity-related diseases.

A defining characteristic of most human cancers is heterogeneity, resulting from the somatic acquisition of a complex array of genetic and genomic alterations. Dissecting this heterogeneity is critical to developing an understanding of the underlying mechanisms of disease and to paving the way toward personalized treatments of the disease. We used gene expression data sets from the analysis of primary and metastatic melanomas to develop a molecular description of the heterogeneity that characterizes this disease. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering, gene set enrichment analyses, and pathway activity analyses were used to describe the genetic heterogeneity of melanomas. Patterns of gene expression that revealed two distinct classes of primary melanoma, two distinct classes of in-transit melanoma, and at least three subgroups of metastatic melanoma were identified. Expression signatures developed to predict the status of oncogenic signaling pathways were used to explore the biological basis underlying these differential patterns of expression. This analysis of activities revealed unique pathways that distinguished the primary and metastatic subgroups of melanoma. Distinct patterns of gene expression across primary, in-transit, and metastatic melanomas underline the genetic heterogeneity of this disease. This heterogeneity can be described in terms of deregulation of signaling pathways, thus increasing the knowledge of the biological features underlying individual melanomas and potentially directing therapeutic opportunities to individual patients with melanoma.

The function of genes is often evolutionarily conserved, and comparing the annotation of ortholog genes in different model organisms has proved to be a powerful predictive tool to identify the function of human genes. Here, we describe Manteia, a resource available online at http://manteia.igbmc.fr. Manteia allows the comparison of embryological, expression, molecular and etiological data from human, mouse, chicken and zebrafish simultaneously to identify new functional and structural correlations and gene-disease associations. Manteia is particularly useful for the analysis of gene lists produced by high-throughput techniques such as microarrays or proteomics. Data can be easily analyzed statistically to characterize the function of groups of genes and to correlate the different aspects of their annotation. Sophisticated querying tools provide unlimited ways to merge the information contained in Manteia along with the possibility of introducing custom user-designed biological questions into the system. This allows for example to connect all the animal experimental results and annotations to the human genome, and take advantage of data not available for human to look for candidate genes responsible for genetic disorders. Here, we demonstrate the predictive and analytical power of the system to predict candidate genes responsible for human genetic diseases.

To understand the molecular characteristics of China human rabies vaccine strains,we report the full-length genome of the aG strain and present a comprehensive analysis of this strain and almost all available lyssavirus genomes (58 strains) from GenBank (as of Jan 6,2011).It is generally considered that the G protein plays a predominant role in determining the pathogenicity of the virus,to this end we predicted the tertiary structure of the G protein of aG strain,CTN 181 strain and wild type strain HN 10 based on the crystal structure of Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) G.The predicted RABV G structure has a similar topology to VSV G and the ectodomain can be divided into 4 distinct domains DI-DIV.By mapping the characterized mutations to this structure between China vaccine strains and their close street strains,we speculate that the G303(P-H) mutations of CTN181 and HN10 causing D Ⅱ 3D change may be associated with the attenuated virulence in both strains.Specifically,the two signature mutations (G165P and G231P) in the aG strain are withinβsheets,suggesting that both sites are of structural importance.

Whey acidic proteins (WAP) belong to a large gene family of antibacterial peptides that perform critical immune system functions. The function of human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), a 124-amino acid long polypeptide that has two whey acidic protein four-disulfide core (WFDC) domains, is not well studied. Here, a fusion gene encoding the HE4 protein fused to an IgG1 Fc domain was constructed. The recombinant HE4 protein was expressed as a secretory protein in Pichia pastoris and mammalian HEK293-F cells and was subsequently purified. Our data suggested that the HE4 protein produced by these two expression systems bound to both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, but demonstrated slightly inhibitory activity towards the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, HE4 exhibited proteinase inhibitory activity towards trypsin, elastase, matrix metallopeptidase 9, and the secretory proteinases from Bacillus subtilis. The effects of glycosylation on the biochemical characterization of HE4 were also investigated. LC-ESI-MS glycosylation analysis showed that the high-mannose glycosylated form of HE4 expressed by P. pastoris has lower biological activity when compared to its complex-glycosylated form produced from HEK293-F cells. The implications of this are discussed, which may be provide theoretical basis for its important role in the development of cancer and innate immune system.

The present study further characterizes an extract from immature, human tooth apicies from which an intact dentin phosphoprotein has been identified. Third molar apicies from developing roots were decalcified in 10% EDTA until Ca2+ was undetectable in the decalcifying solution. The crude extract was run on 7.5% SDS-PAGE and stained with "Stains-All." Four distinct bands were found and the molecular weights were 140, 60, 50, and 34 k. When run on a SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions the 60, 50, and 34 k bands were absent. These results suggest that the lower molecular weight bands may be subunits of the larger protein. The extract was then further purified by adding CaCl2 and MgCl2 to precipitate the phosphoprotein. The precipitate was subjected to a DEAE-Sepharose CL6B column and eluted by 0-0.7 M NaCl gradient solution. The amino acid composition of the purified phosphoprotein was determined and the extract was found to be rich in serine and aspartic acid residues. The N-terminal peptide Asp-Asp-Pro was identified. The sequence of the three amino acids is identical to rat incisor phosphoprotein.

Full Text Available This paper presents the first characterization and modeling of dynamic propagation channels for human body communication (HBC. In-situ experiments were performed using customized transceivers in an anechoic chamber. Three HBC propagation channels, i.e., from right leg to left leg, from right hand to left hand and from right hand to left leg, were investigated under thirty-three motion scenarios. Snapshots of data (2,800,000 were acquired from five volunteers. Various path gains caused by different locations and movements were quantified and the statistical distributions were estimated. In general, for a given reference threshold è = −10 dB, the maximum average level crossing rate of the HBC was approximately 1.99 Hz, the maximum average fade time was 59.4 ms, and the percentage of bad channel duration time was less than 4.16%. The HBC exhibited a fade depth of −4 dB at 90% complementary cumulative probability. The statistical parameters were observed to be centered for each propagation channel. Subsequently a Fritchman model was implemented to estimate the burst characteristics of the on-body fading. It was concluded that the HBC is motion-insensitive, which is sufficient for reliable communication link during motions, and therefore it has great potential for body sensor/area networks.

Objective To produce specific monoclonal antibody(mAb)against recombinant human erythropoietin(rHuEPO)for development of higmy efficient methods for erythropoietin detection in biological fluids.Methods rHuEPO was covalently coupled with bovine serum albumin(BSA)and the conjugate was used to immunize mice to produce specific mAb against rHuEPO based on hybridoma technology.The obtained F3-mAb was characterized by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA),SDS-PAGE and Western blot.Results The isotype of F3-mAb Was found to be IgM with an affinity constant of 2.1x108 L/mol.The competitive ELISA using the obtained IgM showed a broader linear range and lower detection limit compared with previous work.Conclusions The modification of rHuEPO was proved to be successful in generating required specific mAb with high avidity to rHuEPO.

This paper presents the first characterization and modeling of dynamic propagation channels for human body communication (HBC). In-situ experiments were performed using customized transceivers in an anechoic chamber. Three HBC propagation channels, i.e., from right leg to left leg, from right hand to left hand and from right hand to left leg, were investigated under thirty-three motion scenarios. Snapshots of data (2,800,000) were acquired from five volunteers. Various path gains caused by different locations and movements were quantified and the statistical distributions were estimated. In general, for a given reference threshold è = -10 dB, the maximum average level crossing rate of the HBC was approximately 1.99 Hz, the maximum average fade time was 59.4 ms, and the percentage of bad channel duration time was less than 4.16%. The HBC exhibited a fade depth of -4 dB at 90% complementary cumulative probability. The statistical parameters were observed to be centered for each propagation channel. Subsequently a Fritchman model was implemented to estimate the burst characteristics of the on-body fading. It was concluded that the HBC is motion-insensitive, which is sufficient for reliable communication link during motions, and therefore it has great potential for body sensor/area networks.

Free human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are unique due to their highly complex nature and important emerging biological and protective functions during early life such as prebiotic activity, pathogen deflection, and epithelial and immune cell modulation. Moreover, four genetically determined heterogeneous HMO secretory groups are known to be based on their structure and composition. Over the years, several analytical techniques have been applied to characterize and quantitate HMOs, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), high pH anion-exchange chromatography, off-line and on-line mass spectrometry (MS), and capillary electrophoresis (CE). Even if these techniques have proven to be efficient and simple, most glycans have no significant UV absorption and derivatization with fluorophore groups prior to separation usually results in higher sensitivity and an improved chromatographic/electrophoretic profile. Consequently, the analysis by HPLC/CE of derivatized milk oligosaccharides with different chromophoric active tags has been developed. However, UV or fluorescence detection does not provide specific structural information and this is a key point in particular related to the highly complex nature of the milk glycan mixtures. As a consequence, for a specific determination of complex mixtures of oligomers, analytical separation is usually required with evaluation by means of MS, which has been successfully applied to HMOs, resulting in efficient compositional analysis and profiling in various milk samples. This review aims to give an overview of the current state-of-the-art techniques used in HMO analysis.

We have examined the ability of intestinal and peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from patients with inflammatory bowel disease to mediate killing against cell line targets in spontaneous, antibody-dependent, lectin-induced, and interferon-induced cell-mediated cytotoxicity assays, as well as responsiveness in the allogeneic mixed leukocyte reaction, and effector capabilities in cell-mediated lympholysis. IMC were poor mediators of spontaneous or antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity with cell line cells as targets (in comparison to normal PBMC, but were capable of killing antibody coated chicken red blood cells. Although IMC were capable of responding to allogeneic cell surface antigens in the mixed leukocyte reaction, they did not exhibit effector function in cell-mediated lympholysis. Mitogenic lectins induced cell-mediated cytotoxicity by isolated intestinal mononuclear cells from controls and patients. HFIF induces cytotoxicity by control but not inflammatory bowel disease intestinal cells. Pokeweed mitogen was the lectin which induced the greatest amount of killing against human cell line targets. We therefore speculate that exogenous agents, or endogenous factors released during viral infection, could play a role in inducing cell mediated cytotoxic damage to the intestine in inflammatory bowel disease patients. In addition, the functional differences between IMC and PBMC indicate that intestinal MNC may have unique cell capabilities which must be better understood prior to the delineation of immunopathologic events in solid organ tissues. We have also examined the secretion of IgA, IgM, and IgG by isolated human IMC, human bone marrow MNC from rib specimens, and PBMC from patients with CD, UC, SLE, or Henoch-Schoenlein purpura (HSP). Control IMC exhibited high spontaneous secretion of IgA, while intestinal MNC from UC and CD patients exhibited only modest increases in IgA secretion. PBMC from patients with CD, UC, SLE, or HSP exhibited markedly

Background Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease responsible for high morbidity around the world, especially in tropical and low income countries. Rats are thought to be the main vector of human leptospirosis in urban settings. However, differences between urban and low-income rural communities provide additional insights into the epidemiology of the disease. Methodology/Principal findings Our study was conducted in two low-income rural communities near the coast of Ecuador. We detected and characterized infectious leptospira DNA in a wide variety of samples using new real time quantitative PCR assays and amplicon sequencing. We detected infectious leptospira in a high percentage of febrile patients (14.7%). In contrast to previous studies on leptospirosis risk factors, higher positivity was not found in rats (3.0%) but rather in cows (35.8%) and pigs (21.1%). Six leptospira species were identified (L. borgpetersenii, L kirschnerii, L santarosai, L. interrogans, L noguchii, and an intermediate species within the L. licerasiae and L. wolffii clade) and no significant differences in the species of leptospira present in each animal species was detected (χ2 = 9.89, adj.p-value = 0.27). Conclusions/Significance A large portion of the world’s human population lives in low-income, rural communities, however, there is limited information about leptospirosis transmission dynamics in these settings. In these areas, exposure to peridomestic livestock is particularly common and high prevalence of infectious leptospira in cows and pigs suggest that they may be the most important reservoir for human transmission. Genotyping clinical samples show that multiple species of leptospira are involved in humandisease. As these genotypes were also detected in samples from a variety of animals, genotype data must be used in conjunction with epidemiological data to provide evidence of transmission and the importance of different potential leptospirosis reservoirs. PMID:27622673

Regenerative medicine aims to engineer materials to replace or restore damaged or diseased organs. The mechanical properties of such materials should mimic the human tissues they are aiming to replace; to provide the required anatomical shape, the materials must be able to sustain the mechanical forces they will experience when implanted at the defect site. Although the mechanical properties of tissue-engineered scaffolds are of great importance, many human tissues that undergo restoration with engineered materials have not been fully biomechanically characterized. Several compressive and tensile protocols are reported for evaluating materials, but with large variability it is difficult to compare results between studies. Further complicating the studies is the often destructive nature of mechanical testing. Whilst an understanding of tissue failure is important, it is also important to have knowledge of the elastic and viscoelastic properties under more physiological loading conditions. This report aims to provide a minimally destructive protocol to evaluate the compressive and tensile properties of human soft tissues. As examples of this technique, the tensile testing of skin and the compressive testing of cartilage are described. These protocols can also be directly applied to synthetic materials to ensure that the mechanical properties are similar to the native tissue. Protocols to assess the mechanical properties of human native tissue will allow a benchmark by which to create suitable tissue-engineered substitutes.

Composed of trillions of individual microbes, the human gut microbiota has adapted to the uniquely diverse environments found in the human intestine. Quickly responding to the variances in the ingested food, the microbiota interacts with the host via reciprocal biochemical signaling to coordinate the exchange of nutrients and proper immune function. Host and microbiota function as a unit which guards its balance against invasion by potential pathogens and which undergoes natural selection. Disturbance of the microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, is often associated with humandisease, indicating that, while there seems to be no unique optimal composition of the gut microbiota, a balanced community is crucial for human health. Emerging knowledge of the ecology of the microbiota-host synergy will have an impact on how we implement antibiotic treatment in therapeutics and prophylaxis and how we will consider alternative strategies of global remodeling of the microbiota such as fecal transplants. Here we examine the microbiota-human host relationship from the perspective of the microbial community dynamics. PMID:28769880

Full Text Available CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats technology has emerged as a powerful technology for genome editing and is now widely used in basic biomedical research to explore gene function. More recently, this technology has been increasingly applied to the study or treatment of humandiseases, including Barth syndrome effects on the heart, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, β-Thalassemia, and cystic fibrosis. CRISPR/Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9 genome editing has been used to correct disease-causing DNA mutations ranging from a single base pair to large deletions in model systems ranging from cells in vitro to animals in vivo. In addition to genetic diseases, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing has also been applied in immunology-focused applications such as the targeting of C-C chemokine receptor type 5, the programmed death 1 gene, or the creation of chimeric antigen receptors in T cells for purposes such as the treatment of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS or promoting anti-tumor immunotherapy. Furthermore, this technology has been applied to the genetic manipulation of domesticated animals with the goal of producing biologic medical materials, including molecules, cells or organs, on a large scale. Finally, CRISPR/Cas9 has been teamed with induced pluripotent stem (iPS cells to perform multiple tissue engineering tasks including the creation of disease models or the preparation of donor-specific tissues for transplantation. This review will explore the ways in which the use of CRISPR/Cas9 is opening new doors to the treatment of humandiseases.

Full Text Available Abstract Although humandisease genes generally tend to be evolutionarily more ancient than non-disease genes, complex disease genes appear to be represented more frequently than Mendelian disease genes among genes of more recent evolutionary origin. It is therefore proposed that the analysis of human-specific genes might provide new insights into the genetics of complex disease. Cross-comparison with the Human Gene Mutation Database (http://www.hgmd.org revealed a number of examples of disease-causing and disease-associated mutations in putatively human-specific genes. A sizeable proportion of these were missense polymorphisms associated with complex disease. Since both human-specific genes and genes associated with complex disease have often experienced particularly rapid rates of evolutionary change, either due to weaker purifying selection or positive selection, it is proposed that a significant number of human-specific genes may play a role in complex disease.

Although 65% of recent major disease outbreaks throughout the world have a zoonotic origin, there is still a sharp division among the disciplines into the human and animal health sectors. In the last few decades, a global integrative concept, often referred to as 'One Health', has been strongly endorsed. Surveillance and monitoring efforts are major components for effective disease prevention and control. As human health and animal health are inextricably linked, it is assumed that a cross-sectoral data interpretation of zoonotic disease information will improve their prevention, prediction and control. To provide an overview of existing systems throughout the world which integrate information from humans and animals on zoonotic diseases, a literature review was conducted. Twenty projects were identified and described regarding their concepts and realization. They all vary widely depending on their surveillance purpose, their structure and the source of information they use. What they have in common is that they quite often use data which have already been collected for another purpose. Therefore, the challenges of how to make use of such secondary data are of great interest.

The genetic and molecular bases of most of the humandiseases have become one of the main goals of the human biology in the last decades. To be able to unveil the genetic variations and the affected cellular processes associated with a specific disease is crucial in order to generate accurate diagnosis and further therapies. The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) revolution, with the associated reduction in time and costs of sequencing, has allowed the scientist to access large number of human ...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by flares of inflammation with periodic need for increased medication and sometimes even surgery. IBD etiology is partly attributed to a deregulated immune response to gut microbiome dysbiosis. Cross-sectional studies have revealed microbial signatures for different IBD diseases, including ulcerative colitis (UC), colonic Crohn’s Disease (CCD), and ileal CD (ICD). Although IBD is dynamic, microbiome studies have primarily focused on single timepoints or few individuals. Here we dissect the long-term dynamic behavior of the gut microbiome in IBD and differentiate this from normal variation. Microbiomes of IBD subjects fluctuate more than healthy individuals, based on deviation from a newly-defined healthy plane (HP). ICD subjects deviated most from the HP, especially subjects with surgical resection. Intriguingly, the microbiomes of some IBD subjects periodically visited the HP then deviated away from it. Inflammation was not directly correlated with distance to the healthy plane, but there was some correlation between observed dramatic fluctuations in the gut microbiome and intensified medication due to a flare of the disease. These results help guide therapies that will re-direct the gut microbiome towards a healthy state and maintain remission in IBD.

Opuntia species have been used for centuries as food resources and in traditional folk medicine for their nutritional properties and their benefit in chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, obesity...

Full Text Available Alzheimer’s (AD and Parkinson’s (PD diseases are devastating neurodegenerative disturbances wherein neuroinflammation is a chronic pathogenic process with high therapeutic potential. Major mediators of AD/PD neuroimmune processes are resident immune cells, but immune cells derived from periphery may also participate and to some extent modify neuroinflammation. Specifically, blood borne myeloid cells emerge as crucial components of AD/PD progression and susceptibility. Among these, dendritic cells (DCs are key immune orchestrators and players of brain immune surveillance: we candidate them as potential mediators of both AD and PD and as relevant cell model for unraveling myeloid cell role in neurodegeneration. Hence, we recapitulate and discuss emerging data suggesting that blood-derived DCs play a role in experimental and human neurodegenerative diseases. In humans, in particular, DCs are modified by in vitro culture with neurodegeneration-associated pathogenic factors and dysregulated in AD patients, while the levels of DC precursors are decreased in AD and PD patients’ blood, possibly as an index of their recruitment to the brain. Overall, we emphasize the need to explore the impact of DCs on neurodegeneration to uncover peripheral immune mechanisms of pathogenic importance, recognize potential biomarkers and improve therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases.

The populations of Africa harbour the greatest human genetic diversity following an evolutionary history tracing its beginnings on the continent to time before the emergence of Homo sapiens. Signatures of selection are detectable as responses to ancient environments and cultural practices, modulated by more recent events including infectious epidemics, migrations, admixture and, of course, chance. The age of high-throughput biology is not passing Africa by. African-based cohort studies and networks with an African footprint are ideal springboards for disease-related genetic and genomic studies. Initiatives like HapMap, the 1000 Genomes Project, MalariaGEN, the INDEPTH network and Human Heredity and Health in Africa are catalysts to exploring African genetic diversity and its role in the spectrum from health to disease. The challenges are abundant in dissecting biological questions in the light of linguistic, cultural, geographic and political boundaries and their respective roles in shaping health-related profiles. Will studies based on African populations lead to a new wave of discovery of genetic contributors to disease?

Through the examination of avian malarias as models of infectious humandisease, this paper reveals the kinds of claims that scientists and physicians made on the basis of animal models-biological systems in the laboratory and the field-and what characteristics made for congruence between these models and human malaria. The focus is on the period between 1895 and 1945, and on the genesis and trajectory of certain animal models of malaria within specific locations, such as the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore and Bayer (I. G. Farben) in Elberfeld. These exemplars illustrate a diversity of approaches to malaria-as-disease, and the difficulties of framing aspects of this disease complex within an animal or laboratory system. The diversity and nearness to wild types of the birds, protozoan parasites, and mosquitoes that made up these malaria models contributed a great deal to the complexity of the models. Avian malarias, adopted with enthusiasm, were essential to the success of the U.S. antimalarial program during World War II.

TNF-like 1A (TL1A) is a newly described member of the TNF superfamily that is directly implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, atherosclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. We report the crystal structure of the human TL1A extracellular domain at a resolution of 2.5 {angstrom}, which reveals a jelly-roll fold typical of the TNF superfamily. This structural information, in combination with complementary mutagenesis and biochemical characterization, provides insights into the binding interface and the specificity of the interactions between TL1A and the DcR3 and DR3 receptors. These studies suggest that the mode of interaction between TL1A and DcR3 differs from other characterized TNF ligand/receptor complexes. In addition, we have generated functional TL1A mutants with altered disulfide bonding capability that exhibit enhanced solution properties, which will facilitate the production of materials for future cell-based and whole animal studies. In summary, these studies provide insights into the structure and function of TL1A and provide the basis for the rational manipulation of its interactions with cognate receptors.

Full Text Available In the last decades, transcriptome profiling has been one of the most utilized approaches to investigate humandiseases at the molecular level. Through expression studies, many molecular biomarkers and therapeutic targets have been found for several human pathologies. This number is continuously increasing thanks to total RNA sequencing. Indeed, this new technology has completely revolutionized transcriptome analysis allowing the quantification of gene expression levels and allele-specific expression in a single experiment, as well as to identify novel genes, splice isoforms, fusion transcripts, and to investigate the world of non-coding RNA at an unprecedented level. RNA sequencing has also been employed in important projects, like ENCODE (Encyclopedia of the regulatory elements and TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas, to provide a snapshot of the transcriptome of dozens of cell lines and thousands of primary tumor specimens. Moreover, these studies have also paved the way to the development of data integration approaches in order to facilitate management and analysis of data and to identify novel disease markers and molecular targets to use in the clinics. In this scenario, several ongoing clinical trials utilize transcriptome profiling through RNA sequencing strategies as an important instrument in the diagnosis of numerous human pathologies.

Full Text Available Aim: Newcastle disease (ND is an important viral disease for poultry caused by avian paramyxovirus which can be identified by its nature of agglutination activity with red blood cell (RBC of different species. The study was aimed to characterize the hemagglutinating (HA activity of ND virus (NDV at three different temperatures using RBC of five avian species, six mammalian species, and eight different human blood groups. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted from January to December 2014 at Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Five avian and six different mammalian species were selected for the study. In each species, two blood samples were collected aseptically. Eight different blood groups (A+, A−, B+, B−, AB+, AB−, O+, and O− were studied in human. HA test was performed using two virus strains ND lasota and field isolate of very virulent NDV (VVNDV with mentioned species of RBC at chilling (4°C, incubating (37°C, and room temperature (24°C. Results: Avian RBC requires less time for agglutination than mammalian RBC. Incubation temperature (37°C requires lowest time and chilling temperature requires highest time for agglutination of RBC. Duck RBC requires lowest time (17.81 min while chicken RBC needs highest (57.5 min time for HA at incubation temperature and at chilling temperature, respectively, against ND lasota virus and with field strain. Goat RBC requires significantly higher time for HA (184.68 min at chilling temperature than other mammalian species. Human RBC requires almost similar time but O+ and O− blood group do not show any HA activity. Significant variation (p<0.05 found in quail RBC at incubation temperature. In mammalian species, a significant difference (p<0.05 has been observed in goat and horse RBC at chilling; horse and dog RBC at incubation; goat, horse, buffalo, and dog RBC at room temperature. In human, significant variation (p<0.05 has been found in A+, A− and B− blood group

ABSTRACT Human astroviruses (HAstVs) are nonenveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that are a leading cause of viral gastroenteritis. HAstV particles display T=3 icosahedral symmetry formed by 180 copies of the capsid protein (CP), which undergoes proteolytic maturation to generate infectious HAstV particles. Little is known about the molecular features that govern HAstV particle assembly, maturation, infectivity, and immunogenicity. Here we report the crystal structures of the two main structural domains of the HAstV CP: the core domain at 2.60-Å resolution and the spike domain at 0.95-Å resolution. Fitting of these structures into the previously determined 25-Å-resolution electron cryomicroscopy density maps of HAstV allowed us to characterize the molecular features on the surfaces of immature and mature T=3 HAstV particles. The highly electropositive inner surface of HAstV supports a model in which interaction of the HAstV CP core with viral RNA is a driving force in T=3 HAstV particle formation. Additionally, mapping of conserved residues onto the HAstV CP core and spike domains in the context of the immature and mature HAstV particles revealed dramatic changes to the exposure of conserved residues during virus maturation. Indeed, we show that antibodies raised against mature HAstV have reactivity to both the HAstV CP core and spike domains, revealing for the first time that the CP core domain is antigenic. Together, these data provide new molecular insights into HAstV that have practical applications for the development of vaccines and antiviral therapies. IMPORTANCE Astroviruses are a leading cause of viral diarrhea in young children, immunocompromised individuals, and the elderly. Despite the prevalence of astroviruses, little is known at the molecular level about how the astrovirus particle assembles and is converted into an infectious, mature virus. In this paper, we describe the high-resolution structures of the two main astrovirus

As sequencing of the human genome nears completion, the genes that cause many humandiseases are being identified and functionally described. This has revealed that many humandiseases are due to defects of intracellular trafficking. This 'Toolbox' catalogs and briefly describes these diseases.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is usually benign in healthy individuals but can cause life-threatening disease in those with compromised immune systems. Approved drugs available to treat HCMV disease, including ganciclovir, cidofovir, and foscarnet, have significant toxicities that limit their use in certain patient populations. LJP538 and LJP539 are human monoclonal antibodies that are being evaluated as immunoglobulin therapeutics. The antibodies target glycoproteins gB and the gH/gL/UL128/UL130/UL131a pentameric complex, respectively. Here we present an in vitro characterization of these antibodies. We show that LJP538 and LJP539 are more potent than a marketed immunoglobulin at inhibiting HCMV infection of various cell lines relevant to pathogenesis. We find that LJP538 and LJP539 are active against a panel of clinical isolates in vitro and demonstrate minor-to-moderate synergy in combination. Passage of HCMV in the presence of LJP538 or LJP539 alone resulted in resistance-associated mutations that mapped to the target genes. However, no loss of susceptibility to the combination of antibodies was observed for >400 days in culture. Finally, the binding regions of LJP538 and LJP539 are conserved among clinical isolates. Taken together, these data support the use of LJP538 and LJP539 in combination for clinical trials in HCMV patients. PMID:27270290

Genome-wide association studies have failed to establish common variant risk for the majority of common humandiseases. The underlying reasons for this failure are explained by recent studies of resequencing and comparison of over 1200 human genomes and 10 000 exomes, together with the delineation of DNA methylation patterns (epigenome) and full characterization of coding and noncoding RNAs (transcriptome) being transcribed. These studies have provided the most comprehensive catalogues of functional elements and genetic variants that are now available for global integrative analysis and experimental validation in prospective cohort studies. With these datasets, researchers will have unparalleled opportunities for the alignment, mining, and testing of hypotheses for the roles of specific genetic variants, including copy number variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and indels as the cause of specific phenotypes and diseases. Through the use of next-generation sequencing technologies for genotyping and standardized ontological annotation to systematically analyze the effects of genomic variation on humans and model organism phenotypes, we will be able to find candidate genes and new clues for disease's etiology and treatment. This article describes essential concepts in genetics and genomic technologies as well as the emerging computational framework to comprehensively search websites and platforms available for the analysis and interpretation of genomic data.

Stem cell technologies have facilitated the development of human cellular disease models that can be used to study pathogenesis and test therapeutic candidates. These models hold promise for complex neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) because existing animal models have been unable to fully recapitulate all aspects of pathology. We recently reported the characterization of a novel three-dimensional (3D) culture system that exhibits key events in AD pathogenesis, including extracellular aggregation of β-amyloid and accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau. Here we provide instructions for the generation and analysis of 3D human neural cell cultures, including the production of genetically modified human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) with familial AD mutations, the differentiation of the hNPCs in a 3D matrix, and the analysis of AD pathogenesis. The 3D culture generation takes 1–2 days. The aggregation of β-amyloid is observed after 6-weeks of differentiation followed by robust tau pathology after 10–14 weeks. PMID:26068894

Atherosclerosis is a widespread cardiovascular disease caused by the deposition of lipids (such as cholesterol and triglycerides) on the inner arterial wall. The rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque, resulting in a thrombus, is one of the leading causes of death in the Western World. Preventive assessment of plaque vulnerability is therefore extremely important and can be performed by studying collagen organization and lipid composition in atherosclerotic arterial tissues. Routinely used diagnostic methods, such as histopathological examination, are limited to morphological analysis of the examined tissues, whereas an exhaustive characterization requires immune-histochemical examination and a morpho-functional approach. Instead, a label-free and non-invasive alternative is provided by nonlinear microscopy. In this study, we combined SHG and FLIM microscopy in order to characterize collagen organization and lipids in human carotid ex vivo tissues affected by atherosclerosis. SHG and TPF images, acquired from different regions within atherosclerotic plaques, were processed through image pattern analysis methods (FFT, GLCM). The resulting information on collagen and cholesterol distribution and anisotropy, combined with collagen and lipids fluorescence lifetime measured from FLIM images, allowed characterization of carotid samples and discrimination of different tissue regions. The presented method can be applied for automated classification of atherosclerotic lesions and plaque vulnerability. Moreover, it lays the foundation for a potential in vivo diagnostic tool to be used in clinical setting.

In the present paper, we discuss the importance of the microbiome in allergic disease. In this review paper, the data from the Medline (PubMed) and search engine of Kirikkale University were systematically searched for all relevant articles in June 15th, 2015 for the past 30 years. The keywords of "microbiome", "dysbiosis", "allergy", "allergic rhinitis", "allergic disease", "mechanisms" and "treatment" were used alone or together. In this paper, microbiomes were presented in terms of "Definition", "Influence of \\the human microbiome on health", "The microbiome and allergic diseases", and "Modulation of the gut microbiota in terms of treatment and prevention". Microbiological dysbiosis is also reviewed. The microbiome is the genetic material of all microbes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses) that live on or in the human body. Microbes outnumber human cells in a 10:1 ratio. Most microbes live in the gut, particularly the large intestine. Changes in the immune function of the respiratory tract are (at least in theory) linked to the immunomodulatory activity of the gut microbiota via the concept of a "common mucosal response". The gut microbiota shapes systemic immunity, thus affecting the lung mucosa. Alternatively, changes in the gut microbiota may reflect alterations in the oropharyngeal microbiota, which may in turn directly affect the lung microbiota and host immune responses via microaspiration. Dysbiosis is defined as qualitative and quantitative changes in the intestinal flora; and modern diet and lifestyle, antibiotics, psychological and physical stress result in alterations in bacterial metabolism, as well as the overgrowth of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. All immune system components are directly or indirectly regulated by the microbiota. The nature of microbial exposure early in life appears to be important for the development of robust immune regulation; disruption of either the microbiota or the host response can trigger chronic

International genome sequencing projects have produced billions of nucleotides (letters) of DNA sequence data, including the complete genome sequences of 74 organisms. These genome sequences have created many new scientific opportunities, including the ability to identify sequence variations among individuals within a species. These genetic differences, which are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are particularly important in understanding the genetic basis for disease susceptibility. Since the report of the complete human genome sequence, over two million human SNPs have been identified, including a large-scale comparison of an entire chromosome from twenty individuals. Of the protein coding SNPs (cSNPs), approximately half leads to a single amino acid change in the encoded protein (non-synonymous coding SNPs). Most of these changes are functionally silent, while the remainder negatively impact the protein and sometimes cause humandisease. To date, over 550 SNPs have been found to cause single locus (monogenic) diseases and many others have been associated with polygenic diseases. SNPs have been linked to specific humandiseases, including late-onset Parkinson disease, autism, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. The ability to predict accurately the effects of these SNPs on protein function would represent a major advance toward understanding these diseases. To date several attempts have been made toward predicting the effects of such mutations. The most successful of these is a computational approach called ''Sorting Intolerant From Tolerant'' (SIFT). This method uses sequence conservation among many similar proteins to predict which residues in a protein are functionally important. However, this method suffers from several limitations. First, a query sequence must have a sufficient number of relatives to infer sequence conservation. Second, this method does not make use of or provide any information on protein structure, which

New-Hebrides Condominium, an archipelago in the South Pacific, is a country with a special socio-political environment, due to the duality of its French-British regime. This state of affairs is felt in all areas including Public Health, where we find French, British and Condominial personnel. The pathology of parasitic diseases is essentially tropical with a strong predominance of paludism, at times fatal, and intestinal nematodes; however we rarely find amibiasis or human hydatid disease. Strongyloidiasis as well as specific ascaris of each species are very frequent in animals. In general cattle is relatively healthy, which is fortunate for a country whose economy is turning more and more to breeding.

Full Text Available Thirty five patients with acute Chagas' disease who demonstrated parasitaemia at the time of the investigation were submitted to a detailed electromyographical study. With their muscles at rest, 12 patients showed fibrillation potentials and/or positive sharp waves. On volitional contraction, 7 had short duration motor unit potentials (MUPs and low polyphasic MUPs. On motor and sensory nerve fibers conduction studies, 20 disclosed values below the lower control limit within one or more nerves. Finally, 12 patients produced a muscle, decremental response on nerve supramaximal repetitive stimulation. The findings signal that primary muscle involvement, neuropathy and impairement of the neuromuscular transmission, either isolated or combined, may be found in the acute stage of human Chagas' disease.

Full Text Available There is growing evidence of a significant burden of human papillomavirus (HPV infection and associated disease in men. High rates of HPV infection have been observed in men from sub-Saharan Africa where HIV prevalence is high. HIV infection increases HPV prevalence, incidence and persistence and is strongly associated with the development of anogenital warts and anal, penile and head and neck cancers in men. Despite increasing access to antiretroviral therapy, there appears to be little benefit in preventing the development of these cancers in HIV-positive men, making prevention of infection a priority. New prevention options that are being introduced in many African countries include male circumcision and HPV vaccination. However, more data are needed on the burden of HPV disease in men before boys are included in HPV vaccination programmes.

Most pathogenic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations induce defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). However, phenotypic effects of these mutations show a large degree of variation depending on the tissue affected. These differences are difficult to reconcile with OXPHOS...... as the sole pathogenic factor suggesting that additional mechanisms contribute to lack of genotype and clinical phenotype correlationship. An increasing number of studies have identified a possible effect on the epigenetic landscape of the nuclear genome as a consequence of mitochondrial dysfunction...... to epigenetic changes causing genomic instability in the nuclear genome. We propose that "mitocheckpoint" mediated epigenetic and genetic changes may play key roles in phenotypic variation related to mitochondrial diseases or host of humandiseases in which mitochondrial defect plays a primary role....

The causal agent of western X-disease, an important disease of cherry (Prunus avium) and peach (Prunus persica) in the western United States, was shown to be a non-culturable, mycoplasma-like organism (WX-MLO). Procedures were developed to purify WX-MLOs from celery and leafhoppers infected with a greenhouse-maintained isolate of the peach yellow leaf roll (ghPYLR) strain of western X-disease. WX-MLOs, purified from ghPYLR-infected leafhoppers, elicited the production of specific antisera (WX antisera) when injected into rabbits. When used in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), WX antisera quantitatively detected WX-MLOs in celery, periwinkle, and leafhoppers experimentally infected with either ghPYLR or the Green Valley (GVX) strain of western X-disease. Recombinant clones were screened by colony, dot and southern hybridizations using /sup 32/P-nick translated DNA extracted from healthy and ghPYLR-infected celery and leafhoppers. Twenty-four clones were identified which hybridized with DNA from diseased but not healthy hosts. DNA hybridization assays, using radiolabeled, cloned WX-MLO DNA, readily detected WX-MLOs in celery, periwinkle, and leafhoppers infected with either GVX or ghPYLR and in cherry and peach with symptoms of GVX.

There is a renewed enthusiasm for the clinical translation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells. This is abetted by putative clinically-compliant strategies for hES cell maintenance and directed differentiation, greater understanding of and accessibility to cells through formal cell registries and centralized cell banking for distribution, the revised US government policy on funding hES cell research, and paradoxically the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Additionally, as we consider the constraints (practical and fiscal) of delivering cell therapies for global healthcare, the more efficient and economical application of allogeneic vs autologous treatments will bolster the clinical entry of hES cell derivatives. Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease are primary candidates for hES cell therapy, although there are significant hurdles to be overcome. The present review considers key advances and challenges to translating hES cells into novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, with special consideration given to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Importantly, despite the focus on degenerative brain disorders and hES cells, many of the issues canvassed by this review are relevant to systemic application of hES cells and other pluripotent stem cells such as iPS cells.

Full Text Available Advances in molecular biology have significantly increased the understanding of the biology of different diseases. However, these discoveries have not yet been fully translated into improved treatments for patients with diseases such as cancers. One of the factors limiting the translation of knowledge from preclinical studies to the clinic has been the limitations of in vivo diseases models. In this brief review, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of rodent models that have been developed to simulate human pathologies, focusing in models that employ xenografts and genetic modification. Within the framework of genetically engineered mouse (GEM models, we will review some of the current genetic strategies for modeling diseases in the mouse and the preclinical studies that have already been undertaken. We will also discuss how recent improvements in imaging technologies may increase the information derived from using these GEMs during early assessments of potential therapeutic pathways. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that one of the values of using a mouse model is the very rapid turnover rate of the animal, going through the process of birth to death in a very short timeframe relative to that of larger mammalian species.

First identified in human serum in the late 19th century as a 'complement' to antibodies in mediating bacterial lysis, the complement system emerged more than a billion years ago probably as the first humoral immune system. The contemporary complement system consists of nearly 60 proteins in three activation pathways (classical, alternative and lectin) and a terminal cytolytic pathway common to all. Modern molecular biology and genetics have not only led to further elucidation of the structure of complement system components, but have also revealed function-altering rare variants and common polymorphisms, particularly in regulators of the alternative pathway, that predispose to humandisease by creating 'hyperinflammatory complement phenotypes'. To treat these 'complementopathies', a monoclonal antibody against the initiator of the membrane attack complex, C5, has received approval for use. Additional therapeutic reagents are on the horizon.

Although water is the major component of all biological fluids, the molecular pathways for water transport across cell membranes eluded identification until the discovery of the aquaporin family of water channels. The atomic structure of mammalian AQP1 illustrates how this family of proteins is freely permeated by water but not protons (hydronium ions, H3O+). Definition of the subcellular sites of expression predicted their physiological functions and potential clinical disorders. Analysis of several humandisease states has confirmed that aquaporins are involved in multiple different illnesses including abnormalities of kidney function, loss of vision, onset of brain edema, starvation, and arsenic toxicity.

Metalloproteins have attracted momentous attentions for the treatment of many humandiseases, including cancer, HIV, hypertension, etc. This article reviews the progresses that have been made in the field of drug development of metalloprotein inhibitors, putting emphasis on the targets of carbonic anhydrase, histone deacetylase, angiotensin converting enzyme, and HIV-1 integrase. Many other important metalloproteins are also briefly discussed. The binding and coordination modes of different marketed metalloprotein inhibitors are stated, providing insights to design novel metal binding groups and further novel inhibitors for metalloproteins.

Full Text Available A canine model of Glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSDIa is described. Affected dogs are homozygous for a previously described M121I mutation resulting in a deficiency of glucose-6-phosphatase-α. Metabolic, clinicopathologic, pathologic, and clinical manifestations of GSDIa observed in this model are described and compared to those observed in humans. The canine model shows more complete recapitulation of the clinical manifestations seen in humans including “lactic acidosis”, larger size, and longer lifespan compared to other animal models. Use of this model in preclinical trials of gene therapy is described and briefly compared to the murine model. Although the canine model offers a number of advantages for evaluating potential therapies for GSDIa, there are also some significant challenges involved in its use. Despite these challenges, the canine model of GSDIa should continue to provide valuable information about the potential for generating curative therapies for GSDIa as well as other genetic hepatic diseases.

In this review, we assess our current understanding of the role of bacteriophages infecting the human gut bacterial community in health and disease. In general, bacteriophages contribute to the structure of their microbial communities by driving host and viral diversification, bacterial evolution, and by expanding the functional diversity of ecosystems. Gut bacteriophages are an ensemble of unique and shared phages in individuals, which encompass temperate phages found predominately as prophage in gut bacteria (prophage reservoir) and lytic phages. In healthy individuals, only a small fraction of the prophage reservoir is activated and found as extracellular phages. Phage community dysbiosis is characterized by a shift in the activated prophage community or an increase of lytic phages, and has been correlated with disease, suggesting that a proper balance between lysis and lysogeny is needed to maintain health. Consequently, the concept of microbial dysbiosis might be extended to the phage component of the microbiome as well. Understanding the dynamics and mechanisms to restore balance after dysbiosis is an active area of research. The use of phage transplants to re-establish health suggests that phages can be used as disease treatment. Such advances represent milestones in our understanding of gut phages in human health and should fuel research on their role in health and disease. PMID:28594392

Full Text Available Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs are appreciable players in gene expression regulation in human cells. The canonical function of box C/D and box H/ACA snoRNAs is posttranscriptional modification of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs, namely, 2′-O-methylation and pseudouridylation, respectively. A series of independent studies demonstrated that snoRNAs, as well as other noncoding RNAs, serve as the source of various short regulatory RNAs. Some snoRNAs and their fragments can also participate in the regulation of alternative splicing and posttranscriptional modification of mRNA. Alterations in snoRNA expression in human cells can affect numerous vital cellular processes. SnoRNA level in human cells, blood serum, and plasma presents a promising target for diagnostics and treatment of human pathologies. Here we discuss the relation between snoRNAs and oncological, neurodegenerative, and viral diseases and also describe changes in snoRNA level in response to artificial stress and some drugs.

Full Text Available Abstract Background High throughput gene expression experiments yield large amounts of data that can augment our understanding of disease processes, in addition to classifying samples. Here we present new paradigms of data Separation based on construction of transcriptional regulatory networks for normal and abnormal cells using sequence predictions, literature based data and gene expression studies. We analyzed expression datasets from a number of diseased and normal cells, including different types of acute leukemia, and breast cancer with variable clinical outcome. Results We constructed sample-specific regulatory networks to identify links between transcription factors (TFs and regulated genes that differentiate between healthy and diseased states. This approach carries the advantage of identifying key transcription factor-gene pairs with differential activity between healthy and diseased states rather than merely using gene expression profiles, thus alluding to processes that may be involved in gene deregulation. We then generalized this approach by studying simultaneous changes in functionality of multiple regulatory links pointing to a regulated gene or emanating from one TF (or changes in gene centrality defined by its in-degree or out-degree measures, respectively. We found that samples can often be separated based on these measures of gene centrality more robustly than using individual links. We examined distributions of distances (the number of links needed to traverse the path between each pair of genes in the transcriptional networks for gene subsets whose collective expression profiles could best separate each dataset into predefined groups. We found that genes that optimally classify samples are concentrated in neighborhoods in the gene regulatory networks. This suggests that genes that are deregulated in diseased states exhibit a remarkable degree of connectivity. Conclusion Transcription factor-regulated gene links and

The control of parasitic diseases of humans has been undertaken since the aetiology and natural history of the infections was recognized and the deleterious effects on human health and well-being appreciated by policy makers, medical practitioners and public health specialists. However, while some parasitic infections such as malaria have proved difficult to control, as defined by a sustained reduction in incidence, others, particularly helminth infections can be effectively controlled. The different approaches to control from diagnosis, to treatment and cure of the clinically sick patient, to control the transmission within the community by preventative chemotherapy and vector control are outlined. The concepts of eradication, elimination and control are defined and examples of success summarized. Overviews of the health policy and financing environment in which programmes to control or eliminate parasitic diseases are positioned and the development of public-private partnerships as vehicles for product development or access to drugs for parasite disease control are discussed. Failure to sustain control of parasites may be due to development of drug resistance or the failure to implement proven strategies as a result of decreased resources within the health system, decentralization of health management through health-sector reform and the lack of financial and human resources in settings where per capita government expenditure on health may be less than $US 5 per year. However, success has been achieved in several large-scale programmes through sustained national government investment and/or committed donor support. It is also widely accepted that the level of investment in drug development for the parasitic diseases of poor populations is an unattractive option for pharmaceutical companies. The development of partnerships to specifically address this need provides some hope that the intractable problems of the treatment regimens for the trypanosomiases and

Understanding the kinds of evidence available and using the best evidence to answer a question is critical to evidenced-based decision-making, and it requires synthesis of evidence from a variety of sources. Categorization of human system risks in spaceflight, in particular, focuses on how well the integration and interpretation of all available evidence informs the risk statement that describes the relationship between spaceflight hazards and an outcome of interest. A mature understanding and categorization of these risks requires: 1) sufficient characterization of risk, 2) sufficient knowledge to determine an acceptable level of risk (i.e., a standard), 3) development of mitigations to meet the acceptable level of risk, and 4) identification of factors affecting generalizability of the evidence to different design reference missions. In the medical research community, evidence is often ranked by increasing confidence in findings gleaned from observational and experimental research (e.g., "levels of evidence"). However, an approach based solely on aspects of experimental design is problematic in assessing human system risks for spaceflight. For spaceflight, the unique challenges and opportunities include: (1) The independent variables in most evidence are the hazards of spaceflight, such as space radiation or low gravity, which cannot be entirely duplicated in terrestrial (Earth-based) analogs, (2) Evidence is drawn from multiple sources including medical and mission operations, Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH), spaceflight research (LSDA), and relevant environmental & terrestrial databases, (3) Risk metrics based primarily on LSAH data are typically derived from available prevalence or incidence data, which may limit rigorous interpretation, (4) The timeframe for obtaining adequate spaceflight sample size (n) is very long, given the small population, (5) Randomized controlled trials are unattainable in spaceflight, (6) Collection of personal and

The laboratory mouse is the premier animal model for studying human biology because all life stages can be accessed experimentally, a completely sequenced reference genome is publicly available and there exists a myriad of genomic tools for comparative and experimental research. In the current era of genome scale, data-driven biomedical research, the integration of genetic, genomic and biological data are essential for realizing the full potential of the mouse as an experimental model. The Mouse Genome Database (MGD; http://www.informatics.jax.org), the community model organism database for the laboratory mouse, is designed to facilitate the use of the laboratory mouse as a model system for understanding human biology and disease. To achieve this goal, MGD integrates genetic and genomic data related to the functional and phenotypic characterization of mouse genes and alleles and serves as a comprehensive catalog for mouse models of humandisease. Recent enhancements to MGD include the addition of human ortholog details to mouse Gene Detail pages, the inclusion of microRNA knockouts to MGD's catalog of alleles and phenotypes, the addition of video clips to phenotype images, providing access to genotype and phenotype data associated with quantitative trait loci (QTL) and improvements to the layout and display of Gene Ontology annotations.

The skeletal muscle manifestations of late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) cause significant gait impairment. However, the specific temporal and spatial characteristics of abnormal gait in LOPD have not been objectively analyzed or described in the literature. This pilot study evaluated the gait of 22 individuals with LOPD using the GAITRite® temporospatial gait analysis system. The gait parameters were compared to normal reference values, and correlations were made with standard measures of disease progression. The LOPD population demonstrated significant abnormalities in temporospatial parameters of gait including a trend towards decreased velocity and cadence, a prolonged stance phase, prolonged time in double limb support, shorter step and stride length, and a wider base of support. Precise descriptions and analyses of gait abnormalities have much potential in increasing our understanding of LOPD, especially in regards to how its natural history may be modified by the use of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and other interventions. Gait analysis may provide a sensitive early marker of the onset of clinical symptoms and signs, offer an additional objective measure of disease progression and the impact of intervention, and serve as a potentially important clinical endpoint. The additional data from comprehensive gait analysis may personalize and optimize physical therapy management, and the clarification of specific gait patterns in neuromuscular diseases could be of clinical benefit in the ranking of a differential diagnosis.

Full Text Available Innate lymphoid cells (ILC are a new family of innate immune cells that have emerged as important regulators of tissue homeostasis and inflammation. However, limited data are available concerning the relative abundance and characteristics of ILC in the human lung.The aim of this study was to characterize and enumerate the different ILC subsets in human lung by multi-color flow cytometry.Within the CD45+ Lin- CD127+ pulmonary ILC population, we identified group 1 (ILC1, group 2 (ILC2 and group 3 (ILC3 innate lymphoid cells using specific surface markers (i.e. IL12Rβ2, CRTH2 and CD117 respectively and key transcription factors (i.e. T-bet, GATA-3 and RORγT respectively. Based on the presence of NKp44, ILC3 were further subdivided in natural cytotoxicity receptor (NCR+ and NCR- ILC3. In addition, we demonstrated the production of signature cytokines IFN-γ, IL-5, IL-17A, IL-22 and GM-CSF in the pulmonary ILC population. Interestingly, we observed a tendency to a higher frequency of NCR- ILC3 in lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD compared with controls.We show that the three main ILC subsets are present in human lung. Importantly, the relative abundance of ILC subsets tended to change in COPD patients in comparison to control individuals.

Nanotechnology is the creation and use of materials and devices on the same scale as molecules and intracellular structures, typically less than 100 nm in size. It is an emerging science and has made its way into pharmaceuticals to significantly improve the delivery and efficacy of drugs in a number of therapeutic areas, due to development of various nanoparticle-based products. In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that nanotechnology can help to overcome many of the ocular diseases and hence researchers are keenly interested in this science. Nanomedicines offer promise as viable alternatives to conventional drops, gels or ointments to improve drug delivery to the eye. Because of their small size, they are well tolerated, thus preventing washout, increase bioavailability and also help in specific drug delivery. This review describes the application of nanotechnology in the control of humandiseases with special emphasis on various eye and ocular surfaces diseases.

Keratins are obligate heterodimer proteins that form the intermediate filament cytoskeleton of all epithelial cells. Keratins are tissue and differentiation specific and are expressed in pairs of types I and II proteins. The spectrum of inherited human keratin diseases has steadily increased since the causative role of mutations in the basal keratinocyte keratins 5 and 14 in epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) was first reported in 1991. At the time of writing, mutations in 15 epithelial keratins and two trichocyte keratins have been associated with humandiseases which include EBS, bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma, epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma, ichthyosis bullosa of Siemens, diffuse and focal non-epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma, pachyonychia congenita and monilethrix. Mutations in extracutaneous keratins have been reported in oral white sponge naevus and Meesmann's corneal dystrophy. New subtleties of phenotype-genotype correlation are emerging within the keratin diseases with widely varying clinical presentations attributable to similar mutations within the same keratin. Mutations in keratin-associated proteins have recently been reported for the first time. This article reviews clinical, ultrastructural and molecular aspects of all the keratin diseases described to date and delineates potential future areas of research in this field.

The study aimed to characterize beta-lactam resistance mechanisms of Enterobacteriaceae isolates recovered from diseased dogs and cats between 2008 and 2010 in a European surveillance program (ComPath I) for the antibiotic susceptibility of bacterial pathogens. A total of 608 non-duplicated Enterobacteriaceae isolates were obtained prior antibiotic treatment from diseased dogs (n=464) and cats (n=144). Among the 608 Enterobacteriaceae isolates, 22 presented a minimal inhibitory concentration against cefotaxime above EUCAST breakpoints of susceptibility. All the 22 isolates remained susceptible to carbapenems. Ten isolates were confirmed as extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL) producers by PCR-sequencing of bla coding genes including 9 blaCTX-M (CTX-M-1, 14, 15, 32,…) and 1 blaTEM-52 and 12 were AmpC-producing isolates (10 plasmidic CMY-2 group and 2 isolates overexpressing their chromosomal AmpC). ESBLs and plasmid-mediated AmpC (pAmpC)-producing isolates were mainly recovered from dogs (n=17) suffering from urinary tract infections (n=13) and originated from eight different countries. ESBL-bearing plasmids were mostly associated with IncFII incompatibility groups while CMY-2 was predominantly associated with plasmid of the IncI1 group. ESBL/pAmpC-producing Escherichia coli belonged to phylogroup A (n=5), B2 (n=4), and D (n=5). Multilocus sequence typing analysis revealed that among three CTX-M-15-producing E. coli, two belong to sequence type (ST) 131 and one to ST405. The presence of CTX-M-15 including on IncFII plasmids in E. coli ST131-B2 has also been described in isolates of human origin. This suggests the possibility of exchanges of these isolates from humans to companion animals or vice-versa.

Full Text Available Since last few years, an impressive amount of data has been generated regarding the basic in vitro and in vivo biology of neural stem cells (NSCs and there is much far hope for the success in cell replacement therapies for several human neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. The discovery of adult neurogenesis (the endogenous production of new neurons in the mammalian brain more than 40 years ago has resulted in a wealth of knowledge about stem cells biology in neuroscience research. Various studies have done in search of a suitable source for NSCs which could be used in animal models to understand the basic and transplantation biology before treating to human. The difficulties in isolating pure population of NSCs limit the study of neural stem behavior and factors that regulate them. Several studies on human fetal brain and spinal cord derived NSCs in animal models have shown some interesting results for cell replacement therapies in many neurodegenerative diseases and stroke models. Also the methods and conditions used for in vitro culture of these cells provide an important base for their applicability and specificity in a definite target of the disease. Various important developments and modifications have been made in stem cells research which is needed to be more specified and enrolment in clinical studies using advanced approaches. This review explains about the current perspectives and suitable sources for NSCs isolation, characterization, in vitro proliferation and their use in cell replacement therapies for the treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases and strokes.

The biology and disease oriented branch of the Human Proteome Project (B/D-HPP) was established by the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) with the main goal of supporting the broad application of state-of the-art measurements of proteins and proteomes by life scientists studying the molecular mechanisms of biological processes and humandisease. This will be accomplished through the generation of research and informational resources that will support the routine and definitive measurement of the process or disease relevant proteins. The B/D-HPP is highly complementary to the C-HPP and will provide datasets and biological characterization useful to the C-HPP teams. In this manuscript we describe the goals, the plans, and the current status of the of the B/D-HPP.

The humandisease methylation database (DiseaseMeth, http://bioinfo.hrbmu.edu.cn/diseasemeth/) is an interactive database that aims to present the most complete collection and annotation of aberrant DNA methylation in humandiseases, especially various cancers. Recently, the high-throughput microarray and sequencing technologies have promoted the production of methylome data that contain comprehensive knowledge of humandiseases. In this DiseaseMeth update, we have increased the number of samples from 3610 to 32 701, the number of diseases from 72 to 88 and the disease–gene associations from 216 201 to 679 602. DiseaseMeth version 2.0 provides an expanded comprehensive list of disease–gene associations based on manual curation from experimental studies and computational identification from high-throughput methylome data. Besides the data expansion, we also updated the search engine and visualization tools. In particular, we enhanced the differential analysis tools, which now enable online automated identification of DNA methylation abnormalities in humandisease in a case-control or disease–disease manner. To facilitate further mining of the disease methylome, three new web tools were developed for cluster analysis, functional annotation and survival analysis. DiseaseMeth version 2.0 should be a useful resource platform for further understanding the molecular mechanisms of humandiseases. PMID:27899673

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Human papilloma virus (HPV genotypes 6, 11, 16, and 18 impose a substantial burden of direct costs on the Italian National Health Service that has never been quantified fully. The main objective of the present study was to address this gap: (1 by estimating the total direct medical costs associated with nine major HPV-related diseases, namely invasive cervical cancer, cervical dysplasia, cancer of the vulva, vagina, anus, penis, and head and neck, anogenital warts, and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, and (2 by providing an aggregate measure of the total economic burden attributable to HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 infection. METHODS: For each of the nine conditions, we used available Italian secondary data to estimate the lifetime cost per case, the number of incident cases of each disease, the total economic burden, and the relative prevalence of HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18, in order to estimate the aggregate fraction of the total economic burden attributable to HPV infection. RESULTS: The total direct costs (expressed in 2011 Euro associated with the annual incident cases of the nine HPV-related conditions included in the analysis were estimated to be €528.6 million, with a plausible range of €480.1-686.2 million. The fraction attributable to HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 was €291.0 (range €274.5-315.7 million, accounting for approximately 55% of the total annual burden of HPV-related disease in Italy. CONCLUSIONS: The results provided a plausible estimate of the significant economic burden imposed by the most prevalent HPV-related diseases on the Italian welfare system. The fraction of the total direct lifetime costs attributable to HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 infections, and the economic burden of noncervical HPV-related diseases carried by men, were found to be cost drivers relevant to the making of informed decisions about future investments in programmes of HPV prevention.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Recurrent airway obstruction (RAO in horses is a naturally occurring dust-induced disease mainly characterized by bronchiolitis which shows histological and pathophysiological similarities to human chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD. In human COPD previous investigations indicated an association with Chlamydophila psittaci infection. The present study was designed (1 to clarify a possible role of this infectious agent in RAO and (2 to investigate the suitability of this equine disorder as a model for human COPD. Methods Clinico-pathological parameters of a total of 45 horses (25 horses with clinical signs of RAO and 20 clinically healthy controls were compared to histological findings in lung tissue samples and infection by Chlamydiaceae using light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and PCR. Results Horses with clinical signs of RAO vs. controls revealed more inflammatory changes in histology (p = 0.01, and a higher detection rate of Chlamydia psittaci antigens in all cells (p OmpA sequencing identified Chlamydophila psittaci (n = 9 and Chlamydophila abortus (n = 13 in both groups with no significant differences. Within the group of clinically healthy horses subgroups with no changes (n = 15 and slight inflammation of the small airways (n = 5 were identified. Also in the group of animals with RAO subgroups with slight (n = 16 and severe (n = 9 bronchiolitis could be formed. These four subgroups can be separated in parts by the number of cells positive for Chlamydia psittaci antigens. Conclusion Chlamydophila psittaci or abortus were present in the lung of both clinically healthy horses and those with RAO. Immunohistochemistry revealed acute chlamydial infections with inflammation in RAO horses, whereas in clinically healthy animals mostly persistent chlamydial infection and no inflammatory reactions were seen. Stable dust as the known fundamental abiotic factor in RAO is comparable to smoking in humandisease. These

Full Text Available Mammalian topoisomerase 1 (TOP1 is an essential enzyme for normal development. TOP1 relaxes supercoiled DNA to remove helical constraints that can otherwise hinder DNA replication and transcription and thus block cell growth. Unfortunately, this exact activity can covalently trap TOP1 on the DNA that could lead to cell death or mutagenesis, a precursor for tumorigenesis. It is therefore important for cells to find a proper balance between the utilization of the TOP1 catalytic activity to maintain DNA topology and the risk of accumulating the toxic DNA damages due to TOP1 trapping that prevents normal cell growth. In an apparent contradiction to the negative attribute of the TOP1 activity to genome stability, the detrimental effect of the TOP1-induced DNA lesions on cell survival has made this enzyme a prime target for cancer therapies to kill fast-growing cancer cells. In addition, cumulative evidence supports a direct role of TOP1 in promoting transcriptional progression independent of its topoisomerase activity. The involvement of TOP1 in transcriptional regulation has recently become a focus in developing potential new treatments for a subtype of autism spectrum disorders. Clearly, the impact of TOP1 on human health is multifold. In this review, we will summarize our current understandings on how TOP1 contributes to humandiseases and how its activity is targeted for disease treatments.

Mammalian topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) is an essential enzyme for normal development. TOP1 relaxes supercoiled DNA to remove helical constraints that can otherwise hinder DNA repli-cation and transcription and thus block cell growth. Unfortunately, this exact activity can covalently trap TOP1 on the DNA that could lead to cell death or mutagenesis, a precursor for tumorigenesis. It is therefore important for cells to find a proper balance between the utilization of the TOP1 cat-alytic activity to maintain DNA topology and the risk of accumulating the toxic DNA damages due to TOP1 trapping that prevents normal cell growth. In an apparent contradiction to the negative attribute of the TOP1 activity to genome stability, the detrimental effect of the TOP1-induced DNA lesions on cell survival has made this enzyme a prime target for cancer therapies to kill fast-growing cancer cells. In addition, cumulative evidence supports a direct role of TOP1 in pro-moting transcriptional progression independent of its topoisomerase activity. The involvement of TOP1 in transcriptional regulation has recently become a focus in developing potential new treat-ments for a subtype of autism spectrum disorders. Clearly, the impact of TOP1 on human health is multifold. In this review, we will summarize our current understandings on how TOP1 contributes to humandiseases and how its activity is targeted for disease treatments.

Full Text Available Background: Human brucellosis is a disease with protean clinical manifestations. Despite many awareness programmes, it is still missed or wrongly diagnosed. This leads to chronic morbidity leading to misery and loss of working days. Aim and Objectives: To assess the microbiological, clinical and epidemiological aspects of human brucellosis. Materials and Methods: Patients with positive brucella screening test constituted the study material. A detailed laboratory, clinical, epidemiological study along with response to the treatment was analyzed. Results: Seroprevalence of brucellosis was found to be 1.75%. Brucellosis was clinically diagnosed in only 12.73% of cases. Fever, joint pain and low backache were the commonest symptoms. Close contact with animals and raw milk ingestion were the major sources of infection. Knowledge regarding brucellosis and its prevention was lacking in patients. Brucellosis was not considered as one of the differential diagnosis by the treating physicians. Conclusion: Brucellosis should be considered as one of the differential diagnosis in cases presenting with fever, low backache, arthritis and arthralgia. Laboratories should screen all the serum samples for brucella agglutinins by Rose Bengal Plate Test. Awareness regarding the prevention of brucellosis in the general population and regarding the existence of the disease among the doctors practicing in rural areas is needed

There is growing evidence that molecular chaperones/heat shock proteins are involved in the pathogenesis of a number of humandiseases, known as chaperonopathies. A better molecular understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms is essential for addressing new strategies in diagnostics, therapeutics and clinical management of chaperonopathies, including those in which Hsp10 is involved. This chaperonin has been studied for a long time as a member of the mitochondrial protein-folding machine. However, although in normal cells Hsp10 is mainly localized in the mitochondrial matrix, it has also been found during and after stress in other subcellular compartments, such as cytosol, vesicles and secretory granules, alone or in combination with other proteins. In these extramitochondrial locales, Hsp10 plays an active role in cell signalling. For example, cancer cells often show altered levels of Hsp10, compared to normal cells. Hsp10 may also be found in the extracellular space and in the bloodstream, with a possible immunomodulatory activity. This minireview focuses on some studies to date on the involvement of Hsp10 in humandisease pathogenesis.

A juvenile nephropathy in a 4-year-old male Boxer dog, closely resembling the Nephronophthisis (NPHP)-Medullary Cystic Kidney Disease Complex (MCKD) in humans is described. Gross examination of the kidneys revealed several multiple cysts at the corticomedullary junction and in the medulla. Histological examination was characterized by a widespread tubular atrophy and dilatation, with a marked thickening of the tubular basement membrane, interstitial lymphocytic infiltration and fibrosis. Ultrastructural studies revealed dilated tubules with irregular basement membrane thickening and splitting. Lectin histochemistry investigation revealed that the cysts originated in the distal convoluted tubule and collecting duct. Having excluded all other known cystic diseases of the kidney, and based on the lectin histochemistry results, the macroscopic and histological findings of our case are highly compatible with a diagnosis of the NPHP-MCKD complex. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing this particular lesion.

With the help of several inducing factors, somatic cells can be reprogrammed to become induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) lines. The success is in obtaining iPSCs almost identical to embryonic stem cells (ESCs), therefore various approaches have been tested and ultimately several ones have succeeded. The importance of these cells is in how they serve as models to unveil the molecular pathways and mechanisms underlying several humandiseases, and also in its potential roles in the development of regenerative medicine. They further aid in the development of regenerative medicine, autologous cell therapy and drug or toxicity screening. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the recent development in the field of iPSCs research, specifically for modeling human neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, and its applications in neurotrauma. These are mainly characterized by progressive functional or structural neuronal loss rendering them extremely challenging to manage. Many of these diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been explored in vitro. The main purpose is to generate patient-specific iPS cell lines from the somatic cells that carry mutations or genetic instabilities for the aim of studying their differentiation potential and behavior. This new technology will pave the way for future development in the field of stem cell research anticipating its use in clinical settings and in regenerative medicine in order to treat various humandiseases, including neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. PMID:28293168

The aim of this study was to develop a taste-masked oral disintegrating film (ODF) containing donepezil, with fast disintegration time and suitable mechanical strength, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, corn starch, polyethylene glycol, lactose monohydrate and crosspovidone served as the hydrophilic polymeric bases of the ODF. The uniformity, in vitro disintegration time, drug release and the folding endurance of the ODF were examined. The in vitro resul...

Full Text Available Abstract Background While dengue-elicited early and transient host responses preceding defervescence could shape the disease outcome and reveal mechanisms of the disease pathogenesis, assessment of these responses are difficult as patients rarely seek healthcare during the first days of benign fever and thus data are lacking. Methods In this study, focusing on early recruitment, we performed whole-blood transcriptional profiling on denguevirus PCR positive patients sampled within 72 h of self-reported fever presentation (average 43 h, SD 18.6 h and compared the signatures with autologous samples drawn at defervescence and convalescence and to control patients with fever of other etiology. Results In the early dengue fever phase, a strong activation of the innate immune response related genes were seen that was absent at defervescence (4-7 days after fever debut, while at this second sampling genes related to biosynthesis and metabolism dominated. Transcripts relating to the adaptive immune response were over-expressed in the second sampling point with sustained activation at the third sampling. On an individual gene level, significant enrichment of transcripts early in dengue disease were chemokines CCL2 (MCP-1, CCL8 (MCP-2, CXCL10 (IP-10 and CCL3 (MIP-1α, antimicrobial peptide β-defensin 1 (DEFB1, desmosome/intermediate junction component plakoglobin (JUP and a microRNA which may negatively regulate pro-inflammatory cytokines in dengue infected peripheral blood cells, mIR-147 (NMES1. Conclusions These data show that the early response in patients mimics those previously described in vitro, where early assessment of transcriptional responses has been easily obtained. Several of the early transcripts identified may be affected by or mediate the pathogenesis and deserve further assessment at this timepoint in correlation to severe disease.

Type 2 (acute neuronopathic) Gaucher disease was previously thought to be stereotypic in presentation with neurologic deterioration and death by age 2-3 years. However, the generation of a null allele knock-out Gaucher mouse led to the recognition of a subset of type 2 patients who die as neonates. To better understand this subgroup we studied DNA, RNA and residual enzyme activity in fibroblasts from neonatal type 2 Gaucher patients, {open_quotes}classic{close_quotes} type 2 patients, type 1 and type 3 patients and normal individuals. Mutational analysis revealed genotypic heterogeneity in each group. One patient with severe neonatal Gaucher disease and hydrops fetalis was homoallelic for a complex allele including mutations L44P, A456P and V460V, while others had different or unknown alleles. Northern blots demonstrated that transcription was intact even in the neonatal lethal patients. However, the more severe type 2 patients had virtually no protein on Western, indicating that the transcript is either not appropriately translated or results in an unstable protein. Thus type 2 Gaucher disease exhibits more phenotypic, genotypic and biochemical heterogeneity than previously appreciated.

The folding of the cortex in mammalian brains across species has recently been shown to follow a universal scaling law that can be derived from a simple physics model. However, it was yet to be determined whether this law also applies to the morphological diversity of different individuals in a single species, in particular with respect to factors, such as age, sex, and disease. To this end, we derived and investigated the cortical morphology from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of over 1,000 healthy human subjects from three independent public databases. Our results show that all three MRI datasets follow the scaling law obtained from the comparative neuroanatomical data, which strengthens the case for the existence of a common mechanism for cortical folding. Additionally, for comparable age groups, both male and female brains scale in exactly the same way, despite systematic differences in size and folding. Furthermore, age introduces a systematic shift in the offset of the scaling law. In the model, this shift can be interpreted as changes in the mechanical forces acting on the cortex. We also applied this analysis to a dataset derived from comparable cohorts of Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy subjects of similar age. We show a systematically lower offset and a possible change in the exponent for Alzheimer's disease subjects compared with the control cohort. Finally, we discuss implications of the changes in offset and exponent in the data and relate it to existing literature. We, thus, provide a possible mechanistic link between previously independent observations.

Other than its well-recognized effects on reproductive physiology, estrogen has important actions in a wide variety of other body systems with important examples including bone, blood vessels and the heart. These effects are seen in both females and males. Investigators have hypothesized those genetic variants in the genes coding for estrogen signaling proteins may cause variable sensitivity to the hormone and influence an individual's estrogen-sensitive phenotypes. The most obvious candidate genes are the estrogen receptors alpha and (ERalpha and beta). However, the regulation of these genes is complex and not well understood. Furthermore, their coding exons, and regulatory sequences are dispersed across large segments of the genome. A number of common polymorphisms have been identified in both ERalpha and ERbeta, with variable degrees of evidence of their direct biological significance and their association with humandisease. The identification of genetic variations associated with altered estrogen response is of potential public health importance. Insights may be gained into the pathogenesis of estrogen sensitive diseases such as osteoporosis, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease contributing to the development and application of newer therapies for these disorders. Furthermore, genetic variants that alter sensitivity to estrogen may affect both therapeutic and harmful responses to exogenous estrogen administered in the form of the oral contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy. This clinical significance has led to the publication of a number of patents which will be reviewed.

The concept of "Organs-on-Chips" has recently evolved and has been described as 3D (mini-) organs or tissues consisting of multiple and different cell types interacting with each other under closely controlled conditions, grown in a microfluidic chip, and mimicking the complex structures and cellular interactions in and between different cell types and organs in vivo, enabling the real time monitoring of cellular processes. In combination with the emerging iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cell) field this development offers unprecedented opportunities to develop human in vitro models for healthy and diseased organ tissues, enabling the investigation of fundamental mechanisms in disease development, drug toxicity screening, drug target discovery and drug development, and the replacement of animal testing. Capturing the genetic background of the iPSC donor in the organ or disease model carries the promise to move towards "in vitro clinical trials", reducing costs for drug development and furthering the concept of personalized medicine and companion diagnostics. During the Lorentz workshop (Leiden, September 2012) an international multidisciplinary group of experts discussed the current state of the art, available and emerging technologies, applications and how to proceed in the field. Organ-on-a-chip platform technologies are expected to revolutionize cell biology in general and drug development in particular.

Full Text Available Thymic epithelial cells (TECs are the key components in thymic microenvironment for T cells development. TECs, composed of cortical and medullary TECs, are derived from a common bipotent progenitor and undergo a stepwise development controlled by multiple levels of signals to be functionally mature for supporting thymocyte development. Tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR family members including the receptor activator for NFκB (RANK, CD40, and lymphotoxin β receptor (LTβR cooperatively control the thymic medullary microenvironment and self-tolerance establishment. In addition, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs, Wnt, and Notch signals are essential for establishment of functional thymic microenvironment. Transcription factors Foxn1 and autoimmune regulator (Aire are powerful modulators of TEC development, differentiation, and self-tolerance. Dysfunction in thymic microenvironment including defects of TEC and thymocyte development would cause physiological disorders such as tumor, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. In the present review, we will summarize our current understanding on TEC development and the underlying molecular signals pathways and the involvement of thymus dysfunction in humandiseases.

Intestinal parasitic diseases such as enterobiasis, giardiasis, and ascariasis are detected most frequently in Romania, but their importance is definitely surpassed by trichinellosis, cystic echinococcosis, and toxoplasmosis. Malaria was common until its eradication in 1963, and only imported cases are reported nowadays. The aim of this review was to bring together essential data on the epidemiology and history of human parasitoses in Romania. Information on 43 parasitic diseases was collected from numerous sources, most of them unavailable abroad or inaccessible to the international scientific community. Over time, Romanian people of all ages have paid a significant tribute to the pathogenic influences exerted by the parasites. Sanitary and socio-economical consequences of the parasites diseases have great negative impact on the quality of life of affected individuals and the overall well-being of the population. Implementation of efficient public health measures and informative campaigns for the masses as well as changing the inadequate habits that are deeply rooted in the population are mandatory for cutting successfully this Gordian knot.

Patients with myopic vitreopathy (MV) and posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) see floaters, which often can degrade contrast sensitivity to a significant extent. The floaters are associated with irregularly shaped vitreous opacities. In contrast, asteroid hyalosis (AH), which is characterized by microscopic, spherical, white asteroid bodies (ABs) that move with vitreous displacement during eye movements, does not interfere significantly with vision. We hypothesize that the irregular surface of vitreous opacities associated with MV distinguish MV from AH and its smooth-surfaced ABs. A finite-element model was developed to characterize the light-scattering field of vitreous opacities in MV and AH. Vitreous opacities were modeled as spherical bodies and illuminated by a plane wave of light in the optical wavelength of 400-1000 nm. The model has provisions to add random perturbations to the spherical surfaces to vary light-scattering properties and mimic disturbances in vision from simple diffraction rings to more-complex patterns. Samples of ex vivo porcine vitreous (0.4-0.5 ml) were placed in a custom spectrophotometer and the static, light-scattering field of the sample was measured in the spectral range of 400-1000 nm with a resolution of 0.3 nm. Model solutions mimicking healthy vitreous and AH were experimentally validated using a laboratory optical apparatus. Model-based estimates of scattering cross-sections of calibrated gold nanoparticles were found to be in good agreement with experimental measurements. Simulation results potentially can complement experimental data to quantitatively characterize vitreous opacities and distinguish between structures that significantly impact vision, such as those due to myopic vitreopathy and aging, from those that have little impact, like ABs. Such techniques to determine the structural significance of vitreous opacification would be very useful in selecting patients for surgery as well as evaluating the efficacy of

the milestone. To characterize clinical factors influencing MS disease progression as annual transitions from each Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). The annual progression of 11,964 patients from the Swedish MS Registry was analysed with 10 multinomial logistic regressions, that is, one for transition......Previous research characterizing factors influencing multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression has typically been based on time to disease milestones (Kaplan-Meier, Cox hazard regression, etc.). A limitation of these methods is the handling of the often large groups of patients not reaching...

Full Text: Nanomaterials, including nanoparticles and nanotubes, have been widely used in biotechnology and medicine. Applications include systems for controlled release of drugs, biomarkers, biosensors and devices for diagnosis of various diseases like cancer, tuberculosis and Chagas. In the case of cancer, the success of current anti-cancer therapy depends on the speed of diagnosis. Gold nanoparticles can be used to visualize lesions or to destroy cancer cells. In this study, was developed a methodology for identification and quantification of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) deposited on polymer films and matrices that simulate the human skin with pH 7.4, as well as determining the radiation dose of the measures. The nanoparticles were chemically synthesized at the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and nanotoxicology the IFSC/USP and used in concentrations from 1 ppm to 1000 ppm. The measurements were performed with the portable system of the Laboratory of Applied Nuclear Physics (LFNA-UEL), composed of X-ray detector type S-PIN with a resolution of 149 eV for the line at 5.9 keV Mn (AMPTEK) and an X-ray detector type Si-Drift with a resolution of 139 eV for 5.9 keV line of Fe (AMPTEK) and standard electronics, the excitation of samples was performed with a mini X-ray tube with target Silver operated at 28 kV and 10{mu} A (MOXTEK). Filters were used for silver and aluminum in the output of X-ray tube. The positioner for the set of excitation-detection allows degrees of freedom of translation and rotation. The lower limit of quantification was 5 ppm of gold, using measurement times of 300 s to 1000 s, with R2 ranging from 0.92 to 0.96. X-ray fluorescence lines of gold were analyzed by 8.5 keV, 9.7 keV and 11.4 keV showing a statistical deviation of 0.24. (author)

In humans, NKG2D is an activating receptor on natural killer (NK) cells and a costimulatory receptor on certain T cells and plays a central role in mediating immune responses in autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and cancer. Monoclonal antibodies that antagonize or agonize immune responses mediated by human NKG2D are considered to be of broad and potent therapeutic utility. Nonetheless, monoclonal antibodies to NKG2D that are suitable for clinical investigations have not been published yet. Here, we describe the generation, affinity maturation, and characterization of a fully human monoclonal antibody to human NKG2D. Using phage display technology based on a newly generated naïve human Fab library in phage display vector pC3C followed by a tandem chain shuffling process designed for minimal deviation from natural human antibody sequences, we selected a human Fab, designated KYK-2.0, with high specificity and affinity to human NKG2D. KYK-2.0 Fab blocked the binding of the natural human NKG2D ligands MICA, MICB, and ULBP2 as potently as a commercially available mouse anti-human NKG2D monoclonal antibody in immunoglobulin G (IgG) format. Conversion of KYK-2.0 Fab to IgG1 resulted in subnanomolar avidity for human NKG2D. KYK-2.0 IgG1 was found to selectively recognize defined subpopulations of human lymphocytes known to express NKG2D, that is, the majority of human CD8+, CD16+, and CD56+ cells as well as a small fraction of human CD4+ cells. In solution, KYK-2.0 IgG1 interfered with the cytolytic activity of ex vivo expanded human NK cells. By contrast, immobilized KYK-2.0 IgG1 was found to strongly induce human NK cell activation. The dual antagonistic and agonistic activity promises a wide range of therapeutic applications for KYK-2.0 IgG1 and its derivatives.

Disruption in the expression and function of synaptic proteins, and ion channels in particular, is critical in the pathophysiology of human neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. However, very little is known regarding the functional and pharmacological properties of native synaptic human ion channels, and their potential changes in pathological conditions. Recently, an electrophysiological technique has been enabled for studying the functional and pharmacological properties of ion channels present in crude membrane preparation obtained from post-mortem frozen brains. We here extend these studies by showing that human synaptic ion channels also can be studied in this way. Synaptosomes purified from different regions of rodent and human brain (control and Alzheimer's) were characterized biochemically for enrichment of synaptic proteins, and expression of ion channel subunits. The same synaptosomes were also reconstituted in Xenopus oocytes, in which the functional and pharmacological properties of the native synaptic ion channels were characterized using the voltage clamp technique. We show that we can detect GABA, (RS)-α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid, and NMDA receptors, and modulate them pharmacologically with selective agonists, antagonists, and allosteric modulators. Furthermore, changes in ion channel expression and function were detected in synaptic membranes from Alzheimer's brains. Our present results demonstrate the possibility to investigate synaptic ion channels from healthy and pathological brains. This method of synaptosomes preparation and injection into oocytes is a significant improvement over the earlier method. It opens the way to directly testing, on native ion channels, the effects of novel drugs aimed at modulating important classes of synaptic targets. Disruption in the expression and function of synaptic ion channels is critical in the pathophysiology of human neurodegenerative diseases. We here show that

Central core disease and malignant hyperthermia are human disorders of skeletal muscle resulting from aberrant Ca2+ handling. Most malignant hyperthermia and central core disease cases are associated with amino acid changes in the type 1 ryanodine receptor (RyR1), the skeletal muscle Ca2+-release channel. Malignant hyperthermia exhibits a gain-of-function phenotype, and central core disease results from loss of channel function. For a variant to be classified as pathogenic, functional studies must demonstrate a correlation with the pathophysiology of malignant hyperthermia or central core disease. We assessed the pathogenicity of four C-terminal variants of the ryanodine receptor using functional analysis. The variants were identified in families affected by either malignant hyperthermia or central core disease. Four variants were introduced separately into human cDNA encoding the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor. Following transient expression in HEK-293T cells, functional studies were carried out using calcium release assays in response to an agonist. Two previously characterized variants and wild-type skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor were used as controls. The p.Met4640Ile variant associated with central core disease showed no difference in calcium release compared to wild-type. The p.Val4849Ile variant associated with malignant hyperthermia was more sensitive to agonist than wild-type but did not reach statistical significance and two variants (p.Phe4857Ser and p.Asp4918Asn) associated with central core disease were completely inactive. The p.Val4849Ile variant should be considered a risk factor for malignant hyperthermia, while the p.Phe4857Ser and p.Asp4918Asn variants should be classified as pathogenic for central core disease.

The advent of whole exome/genome sequencing and the technology-driven reduction in the cost of next-generation sequencing as well as the introduction of diagnostic-targeted sequencing chips have resulted in an unprecedented volume of data directly linking patient genomic variability to disorders of the brain. This information has the potential to transform our understanding of neurologic disorders by improving diagnoses, illuminating the molecular heterogeneity underlying diseases, and identifying new targets for therapeutic treatment. There is a strong history of mutations in GABA receptor genes being involved in neurologic diseases, particularly the epilepsies. In addition, a substantial number of variants and mutations have been found in GABA receptor genes in patients with autism, schizophrenia, and addiction, suggesting potential links between the GABA receptors and these conditions. A new and unexpected outcome from sequencing efforts has been the surprising number of mutations found in glutamate receptor subunits, with the GRIN2A gene encoding the GluN2A N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subunit being most often affected. These mutations are associated with multiple neurologic conditions, for which seizure disorders comprise the largest group. The GluN2A subunit appears to be a locus for epilepsy, which holds important therapeutic implications. Virtually all α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor mutations, most of which occur within GRIA3, are from patients with intellectual disabilities, suggesting a link to this condition. Similarly, the most common phenotype for kainate receptor variants is intellectual disability. Herein, we summarize the current understanding of disease-associated mutations in ionotropic GABA and glutamate receptor families, and discuss implications regarding the identification of human mutations and treatment of neurologic diseases.

Genetic variations in G protein-coupled receptor genes (GPCRs) disrupt GPCR function in a wide variety of human genetic diseases. In vitro strategies and animal models have been used to identify the molecular pathologies underlying naturally occurring GPCR mutations. Inactive, overactive, or constitutively active receptors have been identified that result in pathology. These receptor variants may alter ligand binding, G protein coupling, receptor desensitization and receptor recycling. Receptor systems discussed include rhodopsin, thyrotropin, parathyroid hormone, melanocortin, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRHR), adrenocorticotropic hormone, vasopressin, endothelin-β, purinergic, and the G protein associated with asthma (GPRA or neuropeptide S receptor 1 (NPSR1)). The role of activating and inactivating calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) mutations is discussed in detail with respect to familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH) and autosomal dominant hypocalemia (ADH). The CASR mutations have been associated with epilepsy. Diseases caused by the genetic disruption of GPCR functions are discussed in the context of their potential to be selectively targeted by drugs that rescue altered receptors. Examples of drugs developed as a result of targeting GPCRs mutated in disease include: calcimimetics and calcilytics, therapeutics targeting melanocortin receptors in obesity, interventions that alter GNRHR loss from the cell surface in idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and novel drugs that might rescue the P2RY12 receptor congenital bleeding phenotype. De-orphanization projects have identified novel disease-associated receptors, such as NPSR1 and GPR35. The identification of variants in these receptors provides genetic reagents useful in drug screens. Discussion of the variety of GPCRs that are disrupted in monogenic Mendelian disorders provides the basis for examining the significance of common

[eng] The genetic and molecular bases of most of the humandiseases have become one of the main goals of the human biology in the last decades. To be able to unveil the genetic variations and the affected cellular processes associated with a specific disease is crucial in order to generate accurate diagnosis and further therapies. The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) revolution, with the associated reduction in time and costs of sequencing, has allowed the scientist to access large number of ...

Full Text Available Abstract Background Parkinson's disease (PD is the most common neurodegenerative disorder involving the motor system. Although not being the only region involved in PD, affection of the substantia nigra and its projections is responsible for some of the most debilitating features of the disease. To further advance a comprehensive understanding of nigral pathology, we conducted a tissue based comparative proteome study of healthy and diseasedhuman substantia nigra. Results The gross number of differentially regulated proteins in PD was 221. In total, we identified 37 proteins, of which 16 were differentially expressed. Identified differential proteins comprised elements of iron metabolism (H-ferritin and glutathione-related redox metabolism (GST M3, GST P1, GST O1, including novel redox proteins (SH3BGRL. Additionally, many glial or related proteins were found to be differentially regulated in PD (GFAP, GMFB, galectin-1, sorcin, as well as proteins belonging to metabolic pathways sparsely described in PD, such as adenosyl homocysteinase (methylation, aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 and cellular retinol-binding protein 1 (aldehyde metabolism. Further differentially regulated proteins included annexin V, beta-tubulin cofactor A, coactosin-like protein and V-type ATPase subunit 1. Proteins that were similarly expressed in healthy or diseased substantia nigra comprised housekeeping proteins such as COX5A, Rho GDI alpha, actin gamma 1, creatin-kinase B, lactate dehydrogenase B, disulfide isomerase ER-60, Rab GDI beta, methyl glyoxalase 1 (AGE metabolism and glutamine synthetase. Interestingly, also DJ-1 and UCH-L1 were expressed similarly. Furthermore, proteins believed to serve as internal standards were found to be expressed in a constant manner, such as 14-3-3 epsilon and hCRMP-2, thus lending further validity to our results. Conclusion Using an approach encompassing high sensitivity and high resolution, we show that alterations of SN in PD include many

The transcriptome of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was investigated in several studies. However, the implications of transcriptional networks in progressive NAFLD are not clear and mechanisms inducing transition from nonalcoholic simple fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are still elusive. The aims of this study were to (1) construct networks for progressive NAFLD, (2) identify hub genes and functional modules in these networks and (3) infer potential linkages among hub genes, transcription factors and microRNAs (miRNA) for NAFLD progression. A systems biology approach by combining differential expression analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was utilized to dissect transcriptional profiles in 19 normal, 10 NAFL and 16 NASH patients. Based on this framework, 3 modules related to chromosome organization, proteasomal ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation and immune response were identified in NASH network. Furthermore, 9 modules of co-expressed genes associated with NAFL/NASH transition were found. Further characterization of these modules defined 13 highly connected hub genes in NAFLD progression network. Interestingly, 11 significantly changed miRNAs were predicted to target 10 of the 13 hub genes. Characterization of modules and hub genes that may be regulated by miRNAs could facilitate the identification of candidate genes and pathways responsible for NAFL/NASH transition and lead to a better understanding of NAFLD pathogenesis. The identified modules and hub genes may point to potential targets for therapeutic interventions.

Interleukin-8 is a chemokine with a potent neutrophil chemoatractant activity. In humans, two different cDNAs encoding human IL8 receptors designated IL8RA and IL8RB have been cloned. IL8RA binds IL8, while IL8RB binds IL8 as well as other {alpha}-chemokines. Both human IL8Rs are encoded by two genes physically linked on chromosome 2. The IL8RA and IL8RB genes have open reading frames (ORF) lacking introns. By direct sequencing of the polymerase chain reaction products, we sequenced the IL8R genes of cell lines from four non-human primates: chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and macaca. The IL8RB encodes an ORF in the four non-human primates, showing 95%-99% similarity to the human IL8RB sequence. The IL8RA homologue in gorilla and chimpanzee consisted of two ORF 98%-99% identical to the human sequence. The macaca and orangutan IL8RA homologues are pseudogenes: a 2 base pair insertion generated a sequence with several stop codons. In addition, we describe the physical linkage of these genes in the four non-human primates and discuss the evolutionary implications of these findings. 25 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a complex ecosystem in which host and microbial cells live in close contact with each other. The microbial community in the human GI tract has an important nutritional and protective function and mainly consists of anaerobic bacteria. After birth, the germ-fr

The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network is crucial for cellular information processing and decision-making. With suitable inputs, PPI networks drive the cells to diverse functional outcomes such as cell proliferation or cell death. Here, we characterize the structural controllability of a large directed human PPI network comprising 6,339 proteins and 34,813 interactions. This network allows us to classify proteins as "indispensable," "neutral," or "dispensable," which correlates to increasing, no effect, or decreasing the number of driver nodes in the network upon removal of that protein. We find that 21% of the proteins in the PPI network are indispensable. Interestingly, these indispensable proteins are the primary targets of disease-causing mutations, human viruses, and drugs, suggesting that altering a network's control property is critical for the transition between healthy and disease states. Furthermore, analyzing copy number alterations data from 1,547 cancer patients reveals that 56 genes that are frequently amplified or deleted in nine different cancers are indispensable. Among the 56 genes, 46 of them have not been previously associated with cancer. This suggests that controllability analysis is very useful in identifying novel disease genes and potential drug targets.

In human cells, the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNP) are represented by a group of polypeptides, with various molecular properties, comprizing the most abundant constituents of the cell nucleus. Autoantibodies to hnRNPs have been reported in patients suffering from different rheumatic dieseases since 1980s. Experimental evidence indicates that hnRNP complexes undergo substantial structural changes during mRNA formation and export. However, how this contributes to disease development still has to be elucidated. Here some preliminary physicochemical features of RNA-protein folding and stability patterns of newly characterized hnRNP A3 with further functional implications in development of systemic human autoimmune states are reported.

The Biology and Disease-driven Human Proteome Project (B/D-HPP) is aimed at supporting and enhancing the broad use of state-of-the-art proteomic methods to characterize and quantify proteins for in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms of biological processes and humandisease. Based on a foundation of the pre-existing HUPO initiatives begun in 2002, the B/D-HPP is designed to provide standardized methods and resources for mass spectrometry and specific protein affinity reagents and facilitate accessibility of these resources to the broader life sciences research and clinical communities. Currently there are 22 B/D-HPP initiatives and 3 closely related HPP resource pillars. The B/D-HPP groups are working to define sets of protein targets that are highly relevant to each particular field to deliver relevant assays for the measurement of these selected targets and to disseminate and make publicly accessible the information and tools generated. Major developments are the 2016 publications of the Human SRM Atlas and of "popular protein sets" for six organ systems. Here we present the current activities and plans of the BD-HPP initiatives as highlighted in numerous B/D-HPP workshops at the 14th annual HUPO 2015 World Congress of Proteomics in Vancouver, Canada.

Bile acids (BAs) have many physiological roles and exhibit both toxic and protective influences within the liver. Alterations in the BA profile may be the result of disease induced liver injury. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a prevalent form of chronic liver diseasecharacterized by the pathophysiological progression from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The hypothesis of this study is that the ‘classical’ (neutral) and ‘alternative’ (acidic) BA synthesis pathways are altered together with hepatic BA composition during progression of human NAFLD. This study employed the use of transcriptomic and metabolomic assays to study the hepatic toxicologic BA profile in progressive human NAFLD. Individual human liver samples diagnosed as normal, steatosis, and NASH were utilized in the assays. The transcriptomic analysis of 70 BA genes revealed an enrichment of downregulated BA metabolism and transcription factor/receptor genes in livers diagnosed as NASH. Increased mRNA expression of BAAT and CYP7B1 was observed in contrast to decreased CYP8B1 expression in NASH samples. The BA metabolomic profile of NASH livers exhibited an increase in taurine together with elevated levels of conjugated BA species, taurocholic acid (TCA) and taurodeoxycholic acid (TDCA). Conversely, cholic acid (CA) and glycodeoxycholic acid (GDCA) were decreased in NASH liver. These findings reveal a potential shift toward the alternative pathway of BA synthesis during NASH, mediated by increased mRNA and protein expression of CYP7B1. Overall, the transcriptomic changes of BA synthesis pathway enzymes together with altered hepatic BA composition signify an attempt by the liver to reduce hepatotoxicity during disease progression to NASH. - Highlights: ► Altered hepatic bile acid composition is observed in progressive NAFLD. ► Bile acid synthesis enzymes are transcriptionally altered in NASH livers. ► Increased levels of taurine and conjugated bile acids

Nonhuman primates (NHPs) provide powerful experimental models to study human development,cognitive functions and disturbances as well as complex behavior,because of their genetic and physiological similarities to humans.Therefore,NHPs are appropriate models for the study of humandiseases,such as neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's,Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases,which occur as a result of genetic mutations.However,such diseass afflicting humans do not occur naturally in NHPs.So transgenic NHPs need to be established to understand the etiology of disease pathology and pathogenesis.Compared to rodent genetic models,the generation of transgenic NHPs for humandiseases is inefficient,and only a transgenic monkey model for Huntington's disease has been reported.This review focuses on potential approaches and contributing factors for generating transgenic NHPs to study humandiseases.

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Previous studies of network properties of humandisease genes have mainly focused on monogenic diseases or cancers and have suffered from discovery bias. Here we investigated the network properties of complex disease genes identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAs, thereby eliminating discovery bias. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We derived a network of complex diseases (n = 54 and complex disease genes (n = 349 to explore the shared genetic architecture of complex diseases. We evaluated the centrality measures of complex disease genes in comparison with essential and monogenic disease genes in the human interactome. The complex disease network showed that diseases belonging to the same disease class do not always share common disease genes. A possible explanation could be that the variants with higher minor allele frequency and larger effect size identified using GWAs constitute disjoint parts of the allelic spectra of similar complex diseases. The complex disease gene network showed high modularity with the size of the largest component being smaller than expected from a randomized null-model. This is consistent with limited sharing of genes between diseases. Complex disease genes are less central than the essential and monogenic disease genes in the human interactome. Genes associated with the same disease, compared to genes associated with different diseases, more often tend to share a protein-protein interaction and a Gene Ontology Biological Process. CONCLUSIONS: This indicates that network neighbors of known disease genes form an important class of candidates for identifying novel genes for the same disease.

Previous studies of network properties of humandisease genes have mainly focused on monogenic diseases or cancers and have suffered from discovery bias. Here we investigated the network properties of complex disease genes identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAs), thereby eliminating discovery bias. We derived a network of complex diseases (n = 54) and complex disease genes (n = 349) to explore the shared genetic architecture of complex diseases. We evaluated the centrality measures of complex disease genes in comparison with essential and monogenic disease genes in the human interactome. The complex disease network showed that diseases belonging to the same disease class do not always share common disease genes. A possible explanation could be that the variants with higher minor allele frequency and larger effect size identified using GWAs constitute disjoint parts of the allelic spectra of similar complex diseases. The complex disease gene network showed high modularity with the size of the largest component being smaller than expected from a randomized null-model. This is consistent with limited sharing of genes between diseases. Complex disease genes are less central than the essential and monogenic disease genes in the human interactome. Genes associated with the same disease, compared to genes associated with different diseases, more often tend to share a protein-protein interaction and a Gene Ontology Biological Process. This indicates that network neighbors of known disease genes form an important class of candidates for identifying novel genes for the same disease.

Primary human fetal cells have been used in clinical trials of cell replacement therapy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington's disease (HD). However, human fetal primary cells are scarce and difficult to work with and so a renewable source of cells is sought. Human fetal neural stem cells (hfNSCs) can be generated from human fetal tissue, but little is known about the differences between hfNSCs obtained from different developmental stages and brain areas. In the present work we characterized hfNSCs, grown as neurospheres, obtained from three developmental stages: 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9weeks post conception (wpc) and four brain areas: forebrain, cortex, whole ganglionic eminence (WGE) and cerebellum. We observed that, as fetal brain development proceeds, the number of neural precursors is diminished and post-mitotic cells are increased. In turn, primary cells obtained from older embryos are more sensitive to the dissociation process, their viability is diminished and they present lower proliferation ratios compared to younger embryos. However, independently of the developmental stage of derivation proliferation ratios were very low in all cases. Improvements in the expansion rates were achieved by mechanical, instead of enzymatic, dissociation of neurospheres but not by changes in the seeding densities. Regardless of the developmental stage, neurosphere cultures presented large variability in the viability and proliferation rates during the initial 3-4 passages, but stabilized achieving significant expansion rates at passage 5 to 6. This was true also for all brain regions except cerebellar derived cultures that did not expand. Interestingly, the brain region of hfNSC derivation influences the expansion potential, being forebrain, cortex and WGE derived cells the most expandable compared to cerebellar. Short term expansion partially compromised the regional identity of cortical but not WGE cultures. Nevertheless, both expanded cultures were

Full Text Available The detection of external cues is fundamental for human spermatozoa to locate the oocyte in the female reproductive tract. This task requires a specific chemoreceptor repertoire that is expressed on the surface of human spermatozoa, which is not fully identified to date. Olfactory receptors (ORs are candidate molecules and have been attributed to be involved in sperm chemotaxis and chemokinesis, indicating an important role in mammalian spermatozoa. An increasing importance has been suggested for spermatozoal RNA, which led us to investigate the expression of all 387 OR genes. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of OR transcripts in human spermatozoa of several individuals by RNA-Seq. We detected 91 different transcripts in the spermatozoa samples that could be aligned to annotated OR genes. Using stranded mRNA-Seq, we detected a class of these putative OR transcripts in an antisense orientation, indicating a different function, rather than coding for a functional OR protein. Nevertheless, we were able to detect OR proteins in various compartments of human spermatozoa, indicating distinct functions in human sperm. A panel of various OR ligands induced Ca2+ signals in human spermatozoa, which could be inhibited by mibefradil. This study indicated that a variety of ORs are expressed at the mRNA and protein level in human spermatozoa and demonstrates that ORs are involved in the physiological processes.

Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) include everything from cosmic rays through visible light to the electric and magnetic fields associated with electricity. While the high frequency fields have sufficient energy to cause cancer, the question of whether there are human health hazards associated with communication radiofrequency (RF) EMFs and those associated with use of electricity remains controversial. The issue is more important than ever given the rapid increase in the use of cell phones and other wireless devices. This review summarizes the evidence stating that excessive exposure to magnetic fields from power lines and other sources of electric current increases the risk of development of some cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, and that excessive exposure to RF radiation increases risk of cancer, male infertility, and neurobehavioral abnormalities. The relative impact of various sources of exposure, the great range of standards for EMF exposure, and the costs of doing nothing are also discussed.

By modulating hepcidin production, an organism controls intestinal iron absorption, iron uptake and mobilization from stores to meet body iron need. In recent years there has been important advancement in our knowledge of hepcidin regulation that also has implications for understanding the physiopathology of some human disorders. Since the discovery of hepcidin and the demonstration of its pivotal role in iron homeostasis, there has been a substantial interest in developing a reliable assay of the hormone in biological fluids. Measurement of hepcidin in biological fluids can improve our understanding of iron diseases and be a useful tool for diagnosis and clinical management of these disorders. We reviewed the literature and our own research on hepcidin to give an updated status of the situation in this rapidly evolving field.

Full Text Available Interleukin- (IL- 33 is a widely expressed cytokine present in different cell types, such as epithelial, mesenchymal, and inflammatory cells, supporting a predominant role in innate immunity. IL-33 can function as a proinflammatory cytokine inducing Th2 type of immune response being involved with the defense against parasitic infections of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, it has been proposed that IL-33 can act as a signaling molecule alerting the immune system of danger or tissue damage. Recently, in the intestinal mucosa, overexpression of IL-33 has been reported in samples from patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD. This review highlights the available data regarding IL-33 in human IBD and discusses emerging roles for IL-33 as a key modulator of intestinal inflammation.

How multicellular organisms control their size is a fundamental question that fascinated generations of biologists.In the past 10 years, tremendous progress has been made toward our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying size control. Original studies from Drosophila showed that in addition to extrinsic nutritional and hormonal cues, intrinsic mechanisms also play important roles in the control of organ size during development. Several novel signaling pathways such as insulin and Hippo-LATS signaling pathways have been identified that control organ size by regulating cell size and/or cell number through modulation of cell growth, cell division, and cell death. Later studies using mammalian cell and mouse models also demonstrated that the signaling pathways identified in flies are also conserved in mammals. Significantly, recent studies showed that dysregulation of size control plays important roles in the development of many humandiseases sucha as cancer,diabetes,and hypertrophy.

Full Text Available The tightly regulated process of precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA alternative splicing (AS is a key mechanism in the regulation of gene expression. Defects in this regulatory process affect cellular functions and are the cause of many humandiseases. Recent advances in our understanding of splicing regulation have led to the development of new tools for manipulating splicing for therapeutic purposes. Several tools, including antisense oligonucleotides and trans-splicing, have been developed to target and alter splicing to correct misregulated gene expression or to modulate transcript isoform levels. At present, deregulated AS is recognized as an important area for therapeutic intervention. Here, we summarize the major hallmarks of the splicing process, the clinical implications that arise from alterations in this process, and the current tools that can be used to deliver, target, and correct deficiencies of this key pre-mRNA processing event.

The regulation of chromatin structure is of paramount importance for a variety of fundamental nuclear processes, including gene expression, DNA repair, replication, and recombination. The ATP-dependent chromatin-remodelling factor ATRX (α thalassaemia/mental retardation X-linked) has emerged as a key player in each of these processes. Exciting recent developments suggest that ATRX plays a variety of key roles at tandem repeat sequences within the genome, including the deposition of a histone variant, prevention of replication fork stalling, and the suppression of a homologous recombination-based pathway of telomere maintenance. Here, we provide a mechanistic overview of the role of ATRX in each of these processes, and propose how they may be connected to give rise to seemingly disparate humandiseases.

Full Text Available Disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD constitute a major goal in medicine. Current trends suggest that biomarkers reflective of AD neuropathology and modifiable by treatment would provide supportive evidence for disease modification. Nevertheless, a lack of quantitative tools to assess disease modifying treatment effects remains a major hurdle. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF biochemical markers such as total tau, p-tau and Ab42 are well established markers of AD; however, global quantitative biochemical changes in CSF in AD disease progression remain largely uncharacterized. Here we applied a high resolution open discovery platform, dMS, to profile a cross-sectional cohort of lumbar CSF from post-mortem diagnosed AD patients versus those from non-AD/non-demented (control patients. Multiple markers were identified to be statistically significant in the cohort tested. We selected two markers SME-1 (p<0.0001 and SME-2 (p = 0.0004 for evaluation in a second independent longitudinal cohort of human CSF from post-mortem diagnosed AD patients and age-matched and case-matched control patients. In cohort-2, SME-1, identified as neuronal secretory protein VGF, and SME-2, identified as neuronal pentraxin receptor-1 (NPTXR, in AD were 21% (p = 0.039 and 17% (p = 0.026 lower, at baseline, respectively, than in controls. Linear mixed model analysis in the longitudinal cohort estimate a decrease in the levels of VGF and NPTXR at the rate of 10.9% and 6.9% per year in the AD patients, whereas both markers increased in controls. Because these markers are detected by mass spectrometry without the need for antibody reagents, targeted MS based assays provide a clear translation path for evaluating selected AD disease-progression markers with high analytical precision in the clinic.

The exposome is the totality of human environmental exposures from conception onwards. Identifying the contribution of the exposome to humandiseases and health is a key issue in health research. Examples include the effect of air pollution exposure on cardiovascular diseases, the impact of disease vectors (mosquitos) and surface hydrology exposure on malaria, and the effect of fast food restaurant exposure on obesity. Essential to health research is to disentangle the effects of the exposome and genome on health. Ultimately this requires quantifying the totality of all human exposures, for each individual in the studied human population. This poses a massive challenge to geoscientists, as environmental data are required at a high spatial and temporal resolution, with a large spatial and temporal coverage representing the area inhabited by the population studied and the time span representing several decades. Then, these data need to be combined with space-time paths of individuals to calculate personal exposures for each individual in the population. The Global and Geo Health Data Centre is taking this challenge by providing a web service capable of enriching population data with exposome information. Our web service can generate environmental information either from archived national (up to 5 m spatial and 1 h temporal resolution) and global environmental information or generated on the fly using environmental models running as microservices. On top of these environmental data services runs an individual exposure service enabling health researchers to select different spatial and temporal aggregation methods and to upload space-time paths of individuals. These are then enriched with personal exposures and eventually returned to the user. We illustrate the service in an example of individual exposures to air pollutants calculated from hyper resolution air pollution data and various approaches to estimate space-time paths of individuals.

Northern blot analysis of human placental RNA using a probe to the 5' end of the human prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) EP2 receptor subtype coding region revealed the existence of a high abundance, low molecular weight transcript. To investigate the origin of this transcript, and its possible relationship to the human EP2 mRNA, we have cloned and characterized the gene encoding the human PGE(2) EP2 receptor subtype, identified transcriptional initiation and termination sites in two tissues (spleen and thymus), and determined its chromosomal localization. The human EP2 gene consists of two exons separated by a large intron, utilizes a common initiation site in both spleen and thymus at 1113 bp upstream of the translation initiation site, and has 3' transcript termini at 1140 bp and 1149 bp downstream of the translation stop site in spleen and thymus respectively. Southern and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis demonstrated the human EP2 gene to be a single copy gene located in band 22 of the long arm of chromosome 14 (14q22). Though our initial interest in this gene was to investigate potential differential splicing of the human EP2 gene in placenta, this work demonstrates that the atypical transcript observed in placenta probably arises from a distinct, yet related, gene. Knowledge of the sequence, structure, and transcription events associated with the human EP2 gene will enable a broader understanding of its regulation and potential role in normal physiology and disease.

Full Text Available Parkinson's disease (PD, hallmarked by a variety of motor disorders and neurological decline, is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. Currently, no diagnostic test exists to identify sufferers, and physicians must rely on a combination of subjective physical and neurological assessments to make a diagnosis. The discovery of definitive blood-borne biomarkers would be a major step towards early and reliable diagnosis. Despite attention devoted to this search, such biomarkers have remained elusive. In the present study, we used human protein microarrays to reveal serum autoantibodies that are differentially expressed among PD and control subjects. The diagnostic significance of each of these autoantibodies was evaluated, resulting in the selection of 10 autoantibody biomarkers that can effectively differentiate PD sera from control sera with a sensitivity of 93.1% and specificity of 100%. PD sera were also distinguishable from sera obtained from Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, and multiple sclerosis patients with accuracies of 86.0%, 96.6%, and 100%, respectively. Results demonstrate that serum autoantibodies can be used as highly specific and accurate biomarkers for PD diagnosis throughout the course of the disease.

Animal models are indispensible in biomedical research and have made tremendous contributions to answer fundamental questions on human biology, disease mechanisms, and to the development of new drugs and diagnostic tools. Due to the limitations of rodent models in translational medicine, tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis), the closest relative of primates, have attracted increasing attention in modeling humandiseases and therapeutic responses. Here we discuss the recent progress in tree shrew biology and the development of tree shrews as humandisease models including infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, neurological and psychiatric diseases, and cancers. Meanwhile, the current problems and future perspectives of the tree shrew model are explored.

The most frequent disease of the locomotor system is osteoarthritis (OA), which, as a chronic joint disease, might benefit more from nutrition than acute illnesses. Collagen hydrolysates (CHs) are peptidic mixtures that are often used as nutraceuticals for OA. Three CHs were characterized biochemically and pharmacologically. Our biophysical (MALDI-TOF-MS, NMR, AFM) and fluorescence assays revealed marked differences between CHs of fish (Peptan® F 5000, Peptan® F 2000) and porcine (Mobiforte®) origin with respect to the total number of peptides and common peptides between them. Using a novel dual radiolabeling procedure, no CH modulated collagen biosynthesis in human knee cartilage explants. Peptan® F 2000 enhanced the activities of the aggrecanase ADMATS4 and ADMATS5 in vitro without loss of proteoglycan from cartilage explants; the opposite effect was observed with Mobiforte®. Interleukin (IL)-6, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, -3 and -13 levels were elevated in explants that were treated with Mobiforte® and Peptan® F 5000, but not with Peptan® F 2000. In conclusion, the heterogeneous peptide composition and disparate pharmacological effects between CHs suggest that the effect of a CH preparation cannot be extrapolated to other formulations. Thus, the declaration of a CH as a safe and effective nutraceutical requires a thorough examination of its pleiotropic effects. PMID:28117674

Full Text Available The most frequent disease of the locomotor system is osteoarthritis (OA, which, as a chronic joint disease, might benefit more from nutrition than acute illnesses. Collagen hydrolysates (CHs are peptidic mixtures that are often used as nutraceuticals for OA. Three CHs were characterized biochemically and pharmacologically. Our biophysical (MALDI-TOF-MS, NMR, AFM and fluorescence assays revealed marked differences between CHs of fish (Peptan® F 5000, Peptan® F 2000 and porcine (Mobiforte® origin with respect to the total number of peptides and common peptides between them. Using a novel dual radiolabeling procedure, no CH modulated collagen biosynthesis in human knee cartilage explants. Peptan® F 2000 enhanced the activities of the aggrecanase ADMATS4 and ADMATS5 in vitro without loss of proteoglycan from cartilage explants; the opposite effect was observed with Mobiforte®. Interleukin (IL-6, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-1, -3 and -13 levels were elevated in explants that were treated with Mobiforte® and Peptan® F 5000, but not with Peptan® F 2000. In conclusion, the heterogeneous peptide composition and disparate pharmacological effects between CHs suggest that the effect of a CH preparation cannot be extrapolated to other formulations. Thus, the declaration of a CH as a safe and effective nutraceutical requires a thorough examination of its pleiotropic effects.

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is recognized as one of the major causes of infection-related cancer worldwide, as well as the causal factor in other diseases. Strong evidence for a causal etiology with HPV has been stated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer for cancers of the cervix uteri, penis, vulva, vagina, anus and oropharynx (including base of the tongue and tonsils). Of the estimated 12.7 million new cancers occurring in 2008 worldwide, 4.8% were attributable to HPV infection, with substantially higher incidence and mortality rates seen in developing versus developed countries. In recent years, we have gained tremendous knowledge about HPVs and their interactions with host cells, tissues and the immune system; have validated and implemented strategies for safe and efficacious prophylactic vaccination against HPV infections; have developed increasingly sensitive and specific molecular diagnostic tools for HPV detection for use in cervical cancer screening; and have substantially increased global awareness of HPV and its many associated diseases in women, men, and children. While these achievements exemplify the success of biomedical research in generating important public health interventions, they also generate new and daunting challenges: costs of HPV prevention and medical care, the implementation of what is technically possible, socio-political resistance to prevention opportunities, and the very wide ranges of national economic capabilities and health care systems. Gains and challenges faced in the quest for comprehensive control of HPV infection and HPV-related cancers and other disease are summarized in this review. The information presented may be viewed in terms of a reframed paradigm of prevention of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases that will include strategic combinations of at least four major components: 1) routine introduction of HPV vaccines to women in all countries, 2) extension and simplification of

Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare disease developed from the lack of homogentisic acid oxidase activity, causing homogentisic acid (HGA) accumulation that produces a HGA-melanin ochronotic pigment, of unknown composition. There is no therapy for AKU. Our aim was to verify if AKU implied a secondary amyloidosis. Congo Red, Thioflavin-T staining and TEM were performed to assess amyloid presence in AKU specimens (cartilage, synovia, periumbelical fat, salivary gland) and in HGA-treated human chondrocytes and cartilage. SAA and SAP deposition was examined using immunofluorescence and their levels were evaluated in the patients' plasma by ELISA. 2D electrophoresis was undertaken in AKU cells to evaluate the levels of proteins involved in amyloidogenesis. AKU osteoarticular tissues contained SAA-amyloid in 7/7 patients. Ochronotic pigment and amyloid co-localized in AKU osteoarticular tissues. SAA and SAP composition of the deposits assessed secondary type of amyloidosis. High levels of SAA and SAP were found in AKU patients' plasma. Systemic amyloidosis was assessed by Congo Red staining of patients' abdominal fat and salivary gland. AKU is the second pathology after Parkinson's disease where amyloid is associated with a form of melanin. Aberrant expression of proteins involved in amyloidogenesis has been found in AKU cells. Our findings on alkaptonuria as a novel type II AA amyloidosis open new important perspectives for its therapy, since methotrexate treatment proved to significantly reduce in vitro HGA-induced A-amyloid aggregates.

Demodex brevis and Demodex folliculorum are likely ubiquitous organisms associated with human eyelashes. However, they have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of external ocular diseases. This article reviews the current literature in regards to life cycle, morphology, pathogenesis and treatment of underlying Demodex spp. infestation and outlines the previously undescribed in vivo behaviour of the mites. Images were obtained from the epilation of lashes from 404 patients seen in clinical practice. Epilated lashes were placed on a microscope slide which had been coated with optically clear hypromellose/carbomer gel (Genteal gel, Novartis pharmaceuticals corporation, East Hanover, New Jersey). Adults were identified with either dark field or standard transmission microscopy at 40-100×. Eggs and other life-cycle stages were examined at 250× magnification, with transmission microscopy giving the best image resolution. The life cycle of the mite has been reviewed and simplified according to clinical observations. Clinical signs suggestive of underlying Demodex spp. infestation have been described, and their pathogenesis was explained based on the micrographic digital images obtained. The problem of symptomatic Demodex spp. disease likely reflects an imbalance in the external ocular ecology; however, the role of Demodex spp. as a commensal should not be overlooked. Treatment should not be aimed at total eradication of the mite but rather restoring the ocular ecology to a balanced state. By revisiting the life cycle of the mite, we can identify areas where possible intervention may be effective.

Full Text Available Immunoglobulin free light chain (FLC kappa (κ and lambda (λ isotypes exist mainly in monomeric and dimeric forms. Under pathological conditions, the level of FLCs as well as the structure of monomeric and dimeric FLCs and their dimerization properties might be significantly altered. The abnormally high fractions of dimeric FLCs were demonstrated in the serum of patients with multiple myeloma (MM and primary systemic amyloidosis (AL, as well as in the serum of anephric patients. The presence of tetra- and trimolecular complexes formed due to dimer-dimer and dimer-monomer interactions was detected in the myeloma serum. Analysis of the amyloidogenic light chains demonstrated mutations within the dimer interface, thus raising the possibility that these mutations are responsible for amyloidogenicity. Increased κ monomer and dimer levels, as well as a high κ/λ monomer ratio, were typically found in the cerebrospinal fluid from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS. In many MS cases, the elevation of κ FLCs was accompanied by an abnormally high proportion of λ dimers. This review focuses on the disease-related changes of the structure and level of dimeric FLCs, and raises the questions regarding their formation, function, and role in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of humandiseases.

Full Text Available Gastrointestinal (GI opportunistic infections (OIs are commonly encountered at various stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV disease. In view of the suppressive nature of the virus and the direct contact with the environment, the GI tract is readily accessible and is a common site for clinical expression of HIV. The subject is presented based on information obtained by electronic searches of peer-reviewed articles in medical journals, Cochrane reviews and PubMed sources. The spectrum of GI OIs ranges from oral lesions of Candidiasis, various lesions of viral infections, hepatobiliary lesions, pancreatitis and anorectal lesions. The manifestations of the disease depend on the level of immunosuppression, as determined by the CD4 counts. The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy has altered the pattern of presentation, resorting mainly to features of antimicrobial-associated colitis and side effects of antiretroviral drugs. The diagnosis of GI OIs in HIV/ acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients is usually straightforward. However, subtle presentations require that the physicians should have a high index of suspicion when given the setting of HIV infection.

The current study reports a flow cytometry-based protocol for the prospective purification of human BM populations representing six successive stages of terminal neutrophil differentiation, including early promyelocytes and late promyelocytes, myelocytes, metamyelocytes, band cells, and PMN...... differentiation in vivo in the human setting and constitutes an important alternative to models that are based on in vitro differentiation of myeloid cell lines and HPCs....

Parkinson's disease (PD) is traditionally classified as a movement disorder because patients mainly complain about motor symptoms. Recently, non-motor symptoms of PD have been recognized by clinicians and scientists as early signs of PD, and they are detrimental factors in the quality of life in advanced PD patients. It is crucial to comprehensively understand the essence of behavioral assessments, from the simplest measurement of certain symptoms to complex neuropsychological tasks. We have recently reviewed behavioral assessments in PD research with animal models (Asakawa et al., 2016). As a companion volume, this article will systematically review the behavioral assessments of motor and non-motor PD symptoms of human patients in current research. The major aims of this article are: (1) promoting a comparative understanding of various behavioral assessments in terms of the principle and measuring indexes; (2) addressing the major strengths and weaknesses of these behavioral assessments for a better selection of tasks/tests in order to avoid biased conclusions due to inappropriate assessments; and (3) presenting new concepts regarding the development of wearable devices and mobile internet in future assessments. In conclusion we emphasize the importance of improving the assessments for non-motor symptoms because of their complex and unique mechanisms in human PD brains.

Full Text Available Anti-ferritin autoantibodies are found in many animals. Human ferritin-binding proteins (FBPs were partially purified from human serum by ion-exchange chromatography and immobilized metal affinity chromatography with Zn2+. Crude FBPs were immunocoprecipitated with canine liver ferritin followed by the addition of anti-ferritin antibodies. Immunoglobulins in the immunocoprecipitate were detected with antibodies specific for human IgG, IgM or IgA heavy chains, and immunoglobulins IgG, IgM and IgA to bind to expressed recombinant human H and L chain homopolymers were also found. A portion of human serum proteins bound to zinc ions immobilized on beads were released upon the addition of canine liver ferritin, and the released protein was identified as IgM antibody. Additionally, the released proteins recognized peptide sequence (DPHLCDF commonly found in amino acid sequences of mammalian ferritin H and L subunits. These results suggest that human serum contains anti-ferritin autoantibodies (IgG, IgM and IgA which bind zinc ions and preferentially bind ferritin over both the H and L subunits, and that a portion of, but not all, the IgM antibodies bound to ferritin with higher affinity than to zinc ions and may recognize the common sequence found in mammalian ferritin H and L subunits.

We are a multidisciplinary group of Stanford faculty who propose ten principles to guide the use of racial and ethnic categories when characterizing group differences in research into human genetic variation.

The physiology of a cell can be viewed as the product of thousands of proteins acting in concert to shape the cellular response. Coordination is achieved in part through networks of protein-protein interactions that assemble functionally related proteins into complexes, organelles, and signal transduction pathways. Understanding the architecture of the human proteome has the potential to inform cellular, structural, and evolutionary mechanisms and is critical to elucidating how genome variation contributes to disease. Here we present BioPlex 2.0 (Biophysical Interactions of ORFeome-derived complexes), which uses robust affinity purification-mass spectrometry methodology to elucidate protein interaction networks and co-complexes nucleated by more than 25% of protein-coding genes from the human genome, and constitutes, to our knowledge, the largest such network so far. With more than 56,000 candidate interactions, BioPlex 2.0 contains more than 29,000 previously unknown co-associations and provides functional insights into hundreds of poorly characterized proteins while enhancing network-based analyses of domain associations, subcellular localization, and co-complex formation. Unsupervised Markov clustering of interacting proteins identified more than 1,300 protein communities representing diverse cellular activities. Genes essential for cell fitness are enriched within 53 communities representing central cellular functions. Moreover, we identified 442 communities associated with more than 2,000 disease annotations, placing numerous candidate disease genes into a cellular framework. BioPlex 2.0 exceeds previous experimentally derived interaction networks in depth and breadth, and will be a valuable resource for exploring the biology of incompletely characterized proteins and for elucidating larger-scale patterns of proteome organization.

The aim of this study was to develop a taste-masked oral disintegrating film (ODF) containing donepezil, with fast disintegration time and suitable mechanical strength, for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, corn starch, polyethylene glycol, lactose monohydrate and crosspovidone served as the hydrophilic polymeric bases of the ODF. The uniformity, in vitro disintegration time, drug release and the folding endurance of the ODF were examined. The in vitro results showed that 80% of donepezil hydrochloride was released within 5 minutes with mean disintegration time of 44 seconds. The result of the film flexibility test showed that the number of folding time to crack the film was 40 times, an indication of sufficient mechanical property for patient use. A single-dose, fasting, four-period, eight-treatment, double-blind study involving 16 healthy adult volunteers was performed to evaluate the in situ disintegration time and palatability of ODF. Five parameters, namely taste, aftertaste, mouthfeel, ease of handling and acceptance were evaluated. The mean in situ disintegration time of ODF was 49 seconds. ODF containing 7 mg of sucralose were more superior than saccharin and aspartame in terms of taste, aftertaste, mouthfeel and acceptance. Furthermore, the ODF was stable for at least 6 months when stored at 40°C and 75% relative humidity.

It has been discovered that neurologic diseases such as X linked spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, Huntington`s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1), and dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) are caused by unstable expansions of CAG repeats, which shed a light on a new mechanism of human hereditary diseases. The genetic anticipation, a common genetic feature in these diseases, can be explained by the trinucleotide repeat expansions, and an inverse correlation between the ages of onset and the numbers of trinucleotide repeats is demonstrated in these diseases. Furthermore, there have been diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxia 2 (SCA2) and Machado-Joseph disease showing similar genetic anticipation, which suggests that their causative mutations are unstable expansions of trinucleotide repeats. To identify candidate genes for neurodegenerative diseases which are expressed in human cerebellum and contain CAG repeats, we screened a human cerebellum cDNA library with an oligonucleotide (CAG){sub 10}, labelled with [{gamma}{sup 32}P]ATP. Out of 78 clones we have isolated, 43 clones were partially sequenced and 31 clones were shown to contain CAG or CTG tinucleotide repeats. From homology searches, 12 of the 59 clones were identified to contain known sequences including human MAR/SAR DNA binding protein, human glial fibrillary acidic protein, human myelin transcription factor 1, human neuronal growth protein 43 and human myocyte-specific enhancer 2. From 6 clones out of the 43 novel genes, we were able to develop primer pairs flanking CAG repeats and determined chromosomal localizations with human and rodent hybrid mapping panels. These CAG repeats were shown to be polymorphic and mapped to 1, 15, 17 and 18. These novel cDNAs will be useful as candidate genes for hereditary neurologic diseases showing genetic anticipation.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV), strain 73-T, has previously been shown to be cytolytic to mouse tumor cells. In this study, we have evaluated the ability of NDV to replicate in and kill human tumor cells in culture and in athymic mice. Plaque assays were used to determine the cytolytic activity of NDV on six human tumor cell lines, fibrosarcoma (HT1080), osteosarcoma (KHOS), cervical carcinoma (KB8-5-11), bladder carcinoma (HCV29T), neuroblastoma (IMR32), and Wilm's tumor (G104), and on nine different normal human fibroblast lines. NDV formed plaques on all tumor cells tested as well as on chick embryo cells (CEC), the native host for NDV. Plaques did not form on any of the normal fibroblast lines. To detect NDV replication, virus yield assays were performed which measured virus particles in infected cell culture supernatants. Virus yield increased 10,000-fold within 24 hr in tumor and CEC supernatants. Titers remained near zero in normal fibroblast supernatants. In vivo tumoricidal activity was evaluated in athymic nude Balb-c mice by subcutaneous injection of 9 x 10(6) tumor cells followed by intralesional injection of either live or heat-killed NDV (1.0 x 10(6) plaque forming units [PFU]), or medium. After live NDV treatment, tumor regression occurred in 10 out of 11 mice bearing KB8-5-11 tumors, 8 out of 8 with HT-1080 tumors, and 6 out of 7 with IMR-32 tumors. After treatment with heat-killed NDV no regression occurred (P less than 0.01, Fisher's exact test). Nontumor-bearing mice injected with 1.0 x 10(8) PFU of NDV remained healthy. These results indicate that NDV efficiently and selectively replicates in and kills tumor cells, but not normal cells, and that intralesional NDV causes complete tumor regression in athymic mice with a high therapeutic index.

Infection with Burkholderia mallei (formerly Pseudomonas mallei) can cause a subcutaneous infection known as "farcy" or can disseminate to condition known as Glanders. It is primarily a disease affecting horses, donkeys and mules. In humans, Glanders can produce four types of disease: localized form, pulmonary form, septicemia, and chronic form. Necrosis of the tracheobronchial tree and pustular skin lesions characterize acute infection with B. mallei. Other symptoms include febrile pneumonia, if the organism was inhaled, or signs of sepsis and multiple abscesses, if the skin was the port of entry. Glanders is endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. Glanders has low contiguous potential, but because of the efficacy of aerosolized dissemination and the lethal nature of the disease, B. mallei was considered a candidate for biological warfare. During World War I, Glanders was believed to have been spread to infect large numbers of Russian horses and mules on the Eastern front. The Japanese infected horses, civilians and prisoners of war during World War II. The USA and the Soviet Union have s